TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Abbreviation for kilobits per second From:scot <scot -at- HCI -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Wed, 26 Jun 1996 15:29:53 +1000
>- In my opinion, however, KB is so common for kilobyte [note the lower case]
>that it might be standard and writing kB (or even kb -- though that would be
>kilobit) will only confuse most users.
>- I would consider kbps okay for kilobits per second -- but again, Gnothi
>Seauton said Socrates and Know Thy User said Dr. Bob and since that is not
>common, I would spell it out the first time. [And you would give them
>programmers something to pounce on as proof of your technical inferiority if
>you say that baud and bps is the same. Usually it is, but ...[]
I'm sure someone else will point this out, if they haven't already, but in
the computer field "kilo-" often mean 1024 (as in 2^10) not 1000 (10^3),
which is why its often abbreviated with a capital K, to differentiate it
from the usual meaning of kilo. Particularly if you're talking memory size.
I'm not sure however whether kilobits per sec (kbps) means 1000 or 1024 bits.
This useage often varies - for example some HDD manufacturers like to use a
kilobyte to mean 1000 bytes not 1024 bytes - because it means they can call
a 1 Gbyte disk, a 1.02 Gbyte disk, and thus their disks appear to be
"bigger" than the competition.
TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send administrative commands
ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-
