OSP Style Guide Quick Reference List

Revised 2/2006

50 m, 50 mm

meters, millimeters

5-nines, 6-nines

5 minutes per year downtime; 31 seconds per year downtime

10BASE-T

Also 10/100BASE-T

100BASE-T

Also 10/100/1000BASE-T

­45 ºC

Space before ºC

­45 ºC to +85 ºC

Use the word ³to² in this case

aA

attoampere (40 aA)

A

ampere(s): 10 A 

baud (Bd)

400 baud

b

bit(s): at 400 bits or 8-bit widget

bps

bits per second: 100 bps

cfm

Cubic feet per minute (20 cfm)

CL2.0, etc.

Clock Latencies: This is an exception to close up space between CL and digits

cm

centimeter: 8 cm

cpm

Cycles per minute (100 cpm)

dB

decibel

dBm

decibel related to one milliwatt

dBu

decibel unit

dc

direct current

dm

decimeter

DS-1, 2, 3

Digital Service ­ Level 1, 2, 3

g

gravity (6-g acceleration); g italicized

Gb

gigabit

Gbps

gigabits per second (10 Gbps); spell out on first reference if meaning is unclear

GB

gigabyte (4 GB)

GbE

gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T)

GeV

gigaelectronvolt

GFLOPS

Billion Floating Point Operations Per Second

GHz

gigahertz (100 GHz)

GSps

giga sample per second

HF

high frequency

HP

Eurocard dimension (4 HP)

Hz

hertz (120 Hz)

I2C

Interintegrated circuit (I2C meaning ³squared C²)

I2O

Intelligent I/O

kbaud

(100 kbaud)

kb

kilobit (200 kb)

kbps

kilobits per second (200 kbps); spell out on first reference if meaning is unclear

kB

kilobyte(s) (10 kB)

kg

kilogram (50 kg)

kHz

kilohertz (800 kHz)

km

kilometer (5 km)

k‡

kilo-ohm

kS

(8 kSamples)

kSps

kilo samples per second (8 kSps)

LF

low frequency

Mb

megabit(s) (400 Mb)

Mbps

megabits per second (100 Mbps); spell out on first reference if meaning is unclear

MB

megabyte (8 MB)

MBps

megabytes per second (6 MBps); spell out on first reference if meaning is unclear

MFLOPS

Million Floating Point Operations Per Second

MHz

megahertz (800 MHz)

M‡

megaohm (1 M‡)

MW

megawatt (5 MW)

m

meters (4 m)

µ

mu, micron (5 µ, etc.) (Note: a micron unit symbol is set in roman, not italics, but a mathematical/numerical variable symbol is italicized.) This is from the Symbol font ­ the only one I had and it looks ital, but the real micron symbol should be more roman looking.

µA

microampere (10 µA)

µF

microfarad (20 µF)

µg

microgram (10 µg)

µH

microhenry (5 µH)

µm

micrometer (30 µm)

µs

microsecond (20 µs)

µW

microwatt (4 µW)

mm

millimeters (5 mm)

mA

milliampere (10 mA)

mg

milligram (200 mg)

mH

millihenry (1 mH)

m‡

milliohm (1 m‡)

ms

millisec (40 ms)

mV

millivolt (20 mV)

mW

milliwatt (5 mW)

nA

nanoampere (5 nA)

nF

nanofarad (5 nF)

Nm

newton meter (1 Nm)

nm

nanometer (5 nm)

ns

nanosecond (8 ns)

Pa

Pascal (1 Pa)

P

Peta

peta

a thousand trillion (petaflops = a thousand teraflops)

petabit

 

Pbps

petabits per second (12 Pbps); spell out on first reference if meaning is unclear

ps

picosecond (10 ps)

pA

picoampere (5 pA)

pF

picofarad (3 pF)

pW

picowatt (4 pW)

rpm

revolutions per minute (120 rpm)

rps

revolutions per second (2 rps)

RS-232, etc.

hyphenate between letters and digits

T

tera

Tb

terabits

Tbps

terabits per second (10 Tbps); spell out on first reference if meaning is unclear

TB

terabytes (2 TB)

U

unit of vertical pitch (6U board = 44.45 mm or 1.75 inches)

V

volt (5 V)

VA

voltampere (10 VA)

Vac

volts alternating current (5 Vac)

Vdc

volts direct current (6 Vdc)

W

watt (10 W)

x

unknown quantity/variable (italicize)