The Bits per second reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Bits per second

In information theory, a bit per second (bit/s or b/s) is a unit used to express the number of bits passing a designated point per second.

For example, for two-condition serial transmission in a single channel in which each significant condition represents a bit, i.e. a 0 or a 1, the bit rate in bits per second and the baud have the same numerical value only if each bit occurs in a unit interval. In this case, the data signaling rate in bits per second is 1/T, where T is the unit interval.

Notes:

1. Binary prefixes apply, usually in their decimal variant, i.e. 1 Mbit/s means 10⁶ = 1,000,000 bit/s, not 2²⁰ = 1,048,576 bit/s.
2. The colloquial abbreviation bps is not in accordance with international standards and is therefore deprecated.
3. When abbreviated there is no plural-s behind the "bit".
4. B/s (with capitalized B) means "byte per second", where one byte is usually equal to eight bits. To avoid confusion it's usually best to spell out "byte" and "bit".

See also: telecommunication.

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Based upon Federal Standard 1037C and MIL-STD-188.

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