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MIPS
  • /mips/ n. [abbreviation] A measure of computing speed; formally, `Million Instructions Per Second' (that's 10^6 per second, not 2^(20)!); often rendered by hackers as `Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed' or in other unflattering ways. This joke expresses a nearly universal attitude about the value of most benchmark claims, said attitude being one of the great cultural divides between hackers and marketroids. The singular is sometimes `1 MIP' even though this is clearly etymologically wrong. See also KIPS and GIPS.
  • Computers, especially large computers, considered abstractly as sources of computrons. "This is just a workstation; the heavy MIPS are hidden in the basement. "
  • The corporate name of a particular RISC-chip company; among other things, they designed the processor chips used in DEC's 3100 workstation series.
  • Acronym for `Meaningless Information per Second' (a joke, prob. from sense 1).