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This one is controversial. There are now several different definition of "jiffy", all of which seem to involve an exact, measurable unit of time. -------- The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. Denis Howe. 18 Nov. 2006. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=jiffy&x=0&y=0>has
1. The duration of one tick of the computer's system clock. Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the US and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec jiffy." become common.
2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond wall time interval. Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use "jiffy" to mean the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to
be close to one *nanosecond*
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"jiffy." Jargon File 4.2.0. 18 Nov. 2006. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=jiffy&x=0&y=0>
n. 1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer (see tick). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently
1/100 sec has become common. "The swapper runs every 6 jiffies" means that the virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second.
2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond wall time interval. 3. Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use `jiffy' to mean the time required for light to
travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to be close to one _nanosecond_. 4. Indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever.
"I'll do it in a jiffy" means certainly not now and possibly never.
This is a bit contrary to the more widespread use of the word.
Oppose nano.
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This would not be a good question to use in a Trivia Contest unles the question was very specific as to which meaning was the desired answer. |
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