cycle

   1.  n. The basic unit of computation. What every hacker wants more of
   (noted hacker Bill Gosper described himself as a "cycle junkie"). One
   can describe an instruction as taking so many clock cycles. Often the
   computer  can access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so one
   speaks  also  of  memory  cycles.  These  are  technical  meanings of
   {cycle}. The jargon meaning comes from the observation that there are
   only  so  many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a computer
   the  cycles  get  divided  up  among  the  users. The more cycles the
   computer  spends  working on your program rather than someone else's,
   the  faster your program will run. That's why every hacker wants more
   cycles:  so  he  can  spend  less  time  waiting  for the computer to
   respond.

   2.  By extension, a notional unit of human thought power, emphasizing
   that  lots  of things compete for the typical hacker's think time. "I
   refused  to  get involved with the Rubik's Cube back when it was big.
   Knew I'd burn too many cycles on it if I let myself."

   3. vt. Syn. {bounce} (sense 4), from the phrase `cycle power'. "Cycle
   the machine again, that serial port's still hung."

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {clocks}{cycle}{letterbomb}]