MIPS /mips/ n. [abbreviation] 1. A measure of computing speed

MIPS /mips/ n.

[abbreviation] 1. 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, such as `Meaningless
Information Provided by Salesmen'. This joke expresses an attitude
nearly universal among hackers about the value of most
benchmark claims, said attitude being one of the great
cultural divides between hackers and marketroids (see also
BogoMIPS). The singular is sometimes `1 MIP' even though this
is clearly etymologically wrong. See also KIPS and
GIPS. 2. Computers, especially large computers, considered
abstractly as sources of computrons. "This is just a
workstation; the heavy MIPS are hidden in the basement." 3. The
corporate name of a particular RISC-chip company; among other
things, they designed the processor chips used in DEC's 3100
workstation series. 4. Acronym for `Meaningless Information per
Second' (a joke, prob. from sense 1).