A nanosecond (ns) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one billionth of a second, that is, of a second, or seconds.

The term combines the SI prefix nano- indicating a 1 billionth submultiple of an SI unit (e.g. nanogram, nanometre, etc.) and second, the primary unit of time in the SI.

A nanosecond is to one second, as one second is to approximately 31.69 years.

A nanosecond is equal to 1000picoseconds or microsecond. Time units ranging between 10 and 10 seconds are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of nanoseconds.

Time units of this granularity are commonly found in telecommunications, pulsed lasers, and related aspects of electronics.

Common measurements

• 0.001 nanoseconds – onepicosecond

• 0.96 nanoseconds – 100 Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap

• 96 nanoseconds – Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap

• 1.0 nanosecond – cycle time of an electromagnetic wave with a frequency of 1GHz ().

• 1.0 nanosecond – electromagnetic wavelength of 1light-nanosecond. Equivalent to 0.3m radio band.

• 1 nanosecond – time precision in Go

• nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 foot in vacuum.

• nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 metre in vacuum.

• 8 nanoseconds – typical propagation delay of 74HC series logic chips based on HCMOS technology, commonly used for digital electronics in the mid-1980s.

• 10 nanoseconds – one "shake", (as in a "shake of a lamb's tail") approximate time of one generation of a nuclear chain reaction with fast neutrons

• 10 nanoseconds – cycle time for frequency 100MHz (), radio wavelength 3m (VHF, FM band)

• 10 nanoseconds – half-life of lithium-12

• 12 nanoseconds – mean lifetime of a charged K meson

• 20–40 nanoseconds – time of fusion reaction in a hydrogen bomb

• 30 nanoseconds – half-life of carbon-21

• 77 nanoseconds – a sixth (a 60th of a 60th of a 60th of a 60th of a second)

• 100 nanoseconds – cycle time for frequency 10MHz, radio wavelength 30 m (shortwave)

• 294.4 nanoseconds – half-life of polonium-212

• 333 nanoseconds – cycle time of highest medium wave radio frequency, 3MHz

• 500 nanoseconds – T1 time of Josephson phase qubit (see also Qubit) as of May 2005

• nanoseconds – onemicrosecond

See also

• International System of Units

• Jiffy (time)

• Microsecond

• Millisecond

• Orders of magnitude (time)

• Picosecond

• Second

References

1. Notes :

   Citations :

External links

• Visual representation of a nanosecond Grace Hopper explains the nanosecond