Are you sure? See Rowlett: bit (b) [1] the basic unit of the amount of data. Each bit records one of the two possible answers to a single question: "0" or "1," "yes" or "no," "on" or "off." When data is represented as binary (base-2) numbers, each binary digit is a single bit. In fact, the word "bit" was coined by the American statistician and computer scientist John Tukey (b. 1915) in 1946 as an acronym for binary digit. Somewhat more generally, the bit is used as a logarithmic unit of data storage capacity, equal to the base-2 logarithm of the number of possible states of the storage device or location. For example, if a storage location stores one letter, then it has 26 possible states, and its storage capacity is log2 26 = 4.7004 bits.
Are you suggesting "b" can not be used for bit because the "b" is already used for bar? But bar is not an SI unit so it should not matter if 'b" is used for bit as there is no conflict with an SI unit symbol. I wonder if the BIPM could ever consider making the bit the SI base unit for the amount of data. The binary SI prefixes would then be applied and be in perfect harmony with the way binary numbers are expressed. Even if the Base-10 prefixes are applied they would have the same meaing as they do with other units. Euric ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Potts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, 2003-12-24 23:52 Subject: [USMA:27961] Re: Mixed Bag on Mars > Euric wrote: > Transmission rates are in kbps instead of kb/s. > > Actually, that should be kbit/s. The last time I looked, there was no formal > agreement on a symbol for bit (which is already a compressed form of "binary > digit" -- and therefore, potentially, a 3-letter symbol). (Of course, given > that bit is a discrete element and not a unit of measure, it's not SI.) > > International standards bodies have been using bit/s, kbit/s and Mbit/s for > years. Recently, they've also been using Gbit/s. Tbit/s isn't too far away. > > One of the worst atrocities I've seen is Kb (which a highly-qualified > engineer insisted was both correct and appropriate), where kbit/s was > intended. Kbs is almost as bad. > > There is agreement on B, for byte. > > Bill Potts, CMS > Roseville, CA > http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] > >
