Blind carbon copy. Sending a copy of a letter to another person in addition to the addressee, without showing on the original letter that a copy was sent to someone else.

Bit. Short for binary digit. The smallest unit of information a computer can hold. The value of a bit is 1 or 0.

Byte. The smallest addressable unit of storage; the amount of memory space used to store one character, which is usually 8 bits. A computer that has 8-bit bytes (most large and small computers today) can distinguish 28 = 256 different characters. See bits, kilobytes and megabytes.

BALanced UNbalanced (device).

Built-in ASseMbler.

Bulletin Board System. A computerized version of the bulletin boards found in stores and other public places, where people can leave messages and advertise things they want to buy or sell. BBSs are often run by local computer user groups, and offer downloads of shareware and freeware plus online information and services. There are special interest bulletin boards, including those run by computer companies to provide information on their products. Many BBSs now have web pages. 2. In chat, Be Back Soon

Binary Coded Decimal. A binary-coded notation in which each of the decimal digits is expressed as a binary numeral; for example, in binary-coded decimal notation 12 is 0001 0010, as opposed to 1100 in pure binary.

Basic Computer Programming Language.

Bit Error Rate Test, Bit Error Rate Tester, or Bit Error Rate Testing. See Bit Error Rate.

Binary File Format (IBM).