Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!rce10845
From: rce10845@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Robert C Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Microcom Modems.....Are they any good?
Message-ID: <1989Dec10.032041.19599@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 10 Dec 89 03:20:41 GMT
References: <1989Dec4.054323.9528@larouch.uucp> <1989Dec8.090429.21867@planet.bt.co.uk>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Reply-To: rce10845@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Robert C Elliott)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lines: 30

In article <1989Dec8.090429.21867@planet.bt.co.uk> cag@tigger.planet.bt.co.uk writes:
>From article <1989Dec4.054323.9528@larouch.uucp>, by jparnas@larouch.UUCP (Jacob Parnas):
>[lots deleted]
>> The reason that we use the Microcom's is they have the best compression 
>> currently around and you hook them up to your computer at 38400 baud.  I've
>> seen up to 33000 baud true throughput cating a file like /etc/hosts.  You
>> won't get that from a T2500.
>> 
>I hate to be pedantic but that's *not* 33000 baud, it's 33000 bits per
>second (=bps).  The highest possible *baud* rate on public switched
>telephone lines is somewhere around 2400 baud full duplex.  The reason
>that you can get much greater than 2400 bits per second is that a baud
>is a 'change of state' per second and with clever encoding each change
>of state transmits more than one bit of information.  In addition of
>course compression techniques reduce the actual number of bits one has
>to transmit.  I would be much happier if we could all use *characters*
>per second (or bytes maybe but that starts with 'b' unfortunately) to
>quote actual data transmission rates.
>
>Chris Green

I agree cps is the best figure to use.

However, the original message can be read as technically correct.  Measure 
your baud rate at the serial ports of the modem and computer, and you
will see (in this case) up to 38400 voltage changes per second.  If the
original post had said the modem is talking to another modem at 38400
baud, then you can label it an error.
 
Rob Elliott: rce10845@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (summer: rob@embossed.com)