baud
Pronounced bawd, the number of signaling elements that occur each second. The term is named after J.M.E. Baudot, the inventor of the Baudot telegraph code.
At slow speeds, only one bit of information (signaling element) is encoded in each electrical change. The baud, therefore, indicates the number of bits per second that are transmitted. For example, 300 baud means that 300 bits are transmitted each second (abbreviated 300 bps ). Assuming asynchronous communication, which requires 10 bits per character, this translates to 30 characters per second (cps). For slow rates (below 1,200 baud), you can divide the baud by 10 to see how many characters per second are sent.
At higher speeds, it is possible to encode more than one bit in each electrical change. 4,800 baud may allow 9,600 bits to be sent each second. At high data transfer speeds, therefore, data transmission rates are usually expressed in bits per second (bps) rather than baud. For example, a 9,600 bps modem may operate at only 2,400 baud.
Read Also:
- bay
Short for drive bay, this refers to a site in a personal computer where a hard or floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive or tape drive can be installed. Thus, the number of drive bays in a computer determines how many mass storage devices can be internally installed. For PCs, bays come in two basic sizes: […]
- a Beacon
Beacons are small, often inexpensive devices that enable more accurate location within a narrow range than GPS, cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi proximity. Beacons transmit small amounts of data via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) up to 50 meters, and as a result are often used for indoor location technology, although beacons can be used outside […]
- beam
To transmit information to another device wirelessly using the infrared port built into Palm and other devices.
- beamforming
In aeroacoustics, beamforming is a signal processing technology that is used to direct the reception or transmission (the signal energy) on a transducer array in a chosen angular direction. Beamforming concentrates the array to sounds coming from only one particular direction to listen to sounds in one direction and ignore sounds in other directions. Beamforming […]
- bells and whistles
Fancy features provided by an application. Typically, the term refers to small features that are needed only in special cases or to features that make the program more visibly attractive (i.e., like real bells and whistles that are aimed at attracting your attention). Depending on the author, the term can be used either favorably or […]