2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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jiffy
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. 1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer (see
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tick ). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and Canada, 1/50
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most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has become common. The
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swapper runs every 6 jiffies means that the virtual memory management
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routine is executed once for every 6 ticks of the clock, or about ten times
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a second. 2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a
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1-millisecond wall time interval. 3. Even more confusingly, physicists
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semi-jokingly use jiffy to mean the time required for light to travel one
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foot in a vacuum, which turns out to be close to one nanosecond. Other
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physicists use the term for the quantum-nechanical lower bound on meaningful
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time lengths, 4. Indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever. I'll do
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it in a jiffy means certainly not now and possibly never. This is a bit
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contrary to the more widespread use of the word. Oppose nano. See also Real
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Soon Now.
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