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Glite Dictionary
megaflop

megaflop

7.7
A measure of computer speed equal to one million calculations in one second
  • noun
  • /ˈmɛɡəˌflɒp/
  • Specialized
translation icon : megaflop
  • The new supercomputer can perform calculations at a speed of 500 megaflops.

Examples

  • Progress was accelerated by the explosion in processing power from newly available computer processors; current versions of the Intuitive system use four digital signal processors to provide 250 megaflops of processing power.

    Academic text (1998)

  • This software requires at least 256 megaflops of processing speed to run smoothly.

  • In particular, Intel, AMD, and the usual players won't be able to compete on the basis of increasing circuit density anymore; just as the megahertz wars ended around 2005 due to heat dissipation, the megaflop wars will end sometime between 2015 and 2020 due to the limits of miniaturization.

    Blog text (16)

  • Incorporating more than 250 megaflops of processing power makes it possible to bring the visual and robotic frames of reference into precise registration—a key element in giving the surgeon a sense of immersion in his work.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The gaming console boasts an impressive performance of 300 megaflops for rendering graphics.

Synonyms

MFLOP
vsmegaflop
  • Specialized
7.9

A unit of computer speed equal to one million calculations each second

is the common spoken full form rather than the uppercase abbreviation
million floating point operations per second
vsmegaflop
  • Specialized
4.8

A measure of how fast a computer does one million math calculations each second

is the shorter technical label used as a compact abbreviation instead

How Fast

exaflop
  • Specialized
9.9
petaflop
  • Specialized
1 9.9
teraflop
  • Specialized
2 9.3
gigaflop
  • Specialized
1 8.2
megaflop
  • Specialized
7.7
flop
  • Specialized
19 8.2

Surface Forms

megaflop singular
megaflops plural

Morphology

megaflop = flop (opaque) = mega + flop

The prefix mega- is transparent, but flop is a technical computing term rather than the ordinary English word, so the full meaning is not recoverable from everyday English.

Etymology

Megaflop joins mega, a prefix that often means 'large' or 'a million' and appears in megabyte, with flop, a short form of 'floating point operation'. So a megaflop is literally 'a million' of those operations, which is why people use it to measure computer speed.