[mrtg] bits and bytes: the official word

[Marco De Vitis]

Wow, Barry Taylor from NIST promptly answered me about the bit/byte
affair. Here is his answer. Does anyone know if the mentioned
publication can be downloaded for free anywhere? iec.org only seems to
sell them...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  The byte, symbol B, and bit, symbol bit, have in fact now been
  officially adopted by the IEC. See International Standard IEC
  60027-2, Second edition, published 2000-11, pp. 63-65. Uppercase B
  was chosen for the symbol even though byte is not a proper name,
  because of the widespread use of B before its official adoption by
  the IEC. Also, b is often used as the symbol for bit even though the
  official symbol is bit. Thus, adopting b as the symbol for byte
  would have led to confusion. When consulting the above mentioned IEC
  standard, please do not overlook footnotes 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the
  table that starts on p. 63 and continues on page 64.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ciao,
  Marco.
-- 
..."What If", Dixie Dregs 1978

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