17 lines
2.9 KiB
HTML
17 lines
2.9 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>jiffy</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../J.html" title="J"/><link rel="previous" href="jibble.html" title="jibble"/><link rel="next" href="job-security.html" title="job security"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">jiffy</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="jibble.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">J</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="job-security.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="jiffy"/><dt xmlns="" id="jiffy"><b>jiffy</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer
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(see <a href="../T/tick.html"><i class="glossterm">tick</i></a>). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in
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the U.S. and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec
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has become common. “<span class="quote">The swapper runs every 6 jiffies</span>” means
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that the virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6
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ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second.</p></dd><dd><p> 2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond
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<a href="../W/wall-time.html"><i class="glossterm">wall time</i></a> interval. </p></dd><dd><p> 3. Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use
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‘jiffy’ to mean the time required for light to travel one foot
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in a vacuum, which turns out to be close to one
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<span class="emphasis"><em>nanosecond</em></span>. Other physicists use the term for the
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quantum-nechanical lower bound on meaningful time lengths, </p></dd><dd><p> 4. Indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever. “<span class="quote">I'll do
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it in a jiffy</span>” means certainly not now and possibly never. This is
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a bit contrary to the more widespread use of the word. Oppose
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<a href="../N/nano.html"><i class="glossterm">nano</i></a>. See also
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<a href="../R/Real-Soon-Now.html"><i class="glossterm">Real Soon Now</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="jibble.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../J.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="job-security.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">jibble </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> job security</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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