two-to-the-N = U = UBD

u- pref.

Written shorthand for micro-; techspeak when applied to metric units, jargon when used otherwise. Derived from the Greek letter "mu", the first letter of "micro" (and which letter looks a lot like the English letter "u").

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.