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
has 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*.
[Jargon File]
(2002-03-02)
Nearby terms:
JFCL « JFET « JFIF « jiffy » Jim Clark » Jini » JIPS
