Node:bathtub curve, Next:[1158]baud, Previous:[1159]batch, Up:[1160]=
B =

bathtub curve n.

Common term for the curve (resembling an end-to-end section of one of
those claw-footed antique bathtubs) that describes the expected
failure rate of electronics with time: initially high, dropping to
near 0 for most of the system's lifetime, then rising again as it
`tires out'. See also [1161]burn-in period, [1162]infant mortality.
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Node:baud, Next:[1163]baud barf, Previous:[1164]bathtub curve,
Up:[1165]= B =

baud /bawd/ n.

[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.