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), 120 reset; from the phrase `cycle power'.
"Cycle the machine again, that serial port's still hung."