3Com Bigpicture Manual page 49

bits per second (bps)
The bits (binary digits) per second rate.
Thousands of bits per second are expressed
as kilobits per second or Kbps.
.bmp
This DOS three-character extension at the
end of a file name identifies the file contents as
bit-mapped graphics (FILENAME.BMP).
byte
A group of binary digits stored and operated
upon as a unit. In user documentation, the
term usually refers to 8-bit units or
characters. One kilobyte (KB) is equal to
1,024 bytes or characters; 640 KB indicates
655,360 bytes or characters.
46
G
LOSSARY
carrier
A tone signifying a connection the modem can
alter to communicate data across telephone
lines.
character
A representation, coded in binary digits, of a
letter, number, or other symbol.
characters per second (CPS)
A data transfer rate generally estimated from
the bit rate and the character length. For
example, at 2400 bps, 8-bit characters with
start/stop bits (for a total of ten bits per
character) will be transmitted at a rate of
approximately 240 characters per second
(cps). Some protocols employ advanced
techniques, such as longer transmission frames
and data compression, to increase cps.