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jiffy: 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. Other physicists use the term for the
quantum-nechanical lower bound on meaningful time lengths, 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. See also
Real Soon Now.
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