cycle

1. n. The basic unit of computation. What every hacker wants more of (noted
hacker Bill Gosper described himself as a  junkie ). One can describe an
instruction as taking so many clock  s. Often the computer can access its
memory once on every clock , and so one speaks also of memory  s. These are
technical meanings of . The jargon meaning comes from the observation that
there are only so many s per second, and when you are sharing a computer the
s get divided up among the users. The more  s the computer spends working on
your program rather than someone else's, the faster your program will run.
That's why every hacker wants more s: so he can spend less time waiting for
the computer to respond. 2. By extension, a notional unit of human thought
power, emphasizing that lots of things compete for the typical hacker's
think time. I refused to get involved with the Rubik's Cube back when it was
big. Knew I'd burn too many s on it if I let myself. 3. vt. Syn. bounce
(sense 4), from the phrase  power. Cycle the machine again, that serial
port's still hung.

