Kilobytes, kilobits - the old problems with nomenclature

The units for measuring data transmission speed seem to be often being confused. Many people do not distinguish between Kb/s and KB/s, kb/s and Kb/s. To clarify the problem we explain the rules of nomenclature for these units:

• k 10³, "kilo", 1000 units
• K 2¹⁰, 1024 units (the prefix commonly used in the field of computing, corresponding with binary systems)
• b bit, the smallest unit of information, 0 or 1
• B byte, group of eight binary digits, capable of representing 2⁸ (256) states

so,

• kb/s 1000 bits per second (1000 b/s or 1000 bps)
• Kb/s 1024 bits per second (1024 b/s or 1000 bps)
• kB/s 1000 bytes per second (8000 b/s or 8000 bps)
• KB/s 1024 bytes per second (8192 b/s or 8192 bps)