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}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {clocks}{nano}{tick}]