Transfer refers to the amount of data transferred across a digital interface, exclusive of any extra bits used to encode the data.
The number of data transfers is less than the number of bits transmitted when encoded data has more bits than the raw data. As an example, a PCIe serial bus uses 10 bits to encode eight data bits. (Extra bit space may be used to encode a clock, error-detection redundancy, etc.)
Data rates are commonly expressed in transfers per second, gigatransfers per second (GT/s) and megatransfers per second (MT/s).
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