Baud

baud

    n : (computer science) a data transmission rate (bits/second)
        for modems [syn: {baud rate}]

From JargonFile (4.3.0, 30 APR 2001) [jargon]

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 Comite' Consultatif International Des
  Communications Te'le'graphiques 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.

When 300 baud was the bomb: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/05/31/back_in_the_day/?x