[simplified from its technical meaning]
n. Bits per second. Hence kilobaud or Kbaud, thousands of bits per
second. The technical meaning is `level transitions per
second'; this coincides with bps only for two-level modulation with
no framing or stop bits. Most hackers are aware of these nuances
but blithely ignore them.
Historical note: `baud' was originally a unit of telegraph
signalling speed, set at one pulse per second. It was proposed at
the November, 1926 conference of the Comité Consultatif
International Des Communications Télégraphiques as an
improvement on the then standard practice of referring to line
speeds in terms of words per minute, and named for Jean Maurice
Emile Baudot (1845-1903), a French engineer who did a lot
of pioneering work in early teleprinters.
