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A nanosecond (ns) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one billionth of a second, that is, 1/1000000000 of a second, or 10−9 seconds.
| nanosecond | |
|---|---|
| Unit system | SI |
| Unit of | time |
| Symbol | ns |
| Conversions | |
| 1 ns in ... | ... is equal to ... |
| SI units | 10−9 s |
Look up nanosecond in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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 1000 picoseconds or 1/1000 microsecond. Time units ranging between 10−8 and 10−7 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.
- 0.001 nanoseconds – one picosecond
- 0.96 nanoseconds – 100 Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap
- 1.0 nanosecond – cycle time of an electromagnetic wave with a frequency of 1 GHz (109 hertz).
- 1.0 nanosecond – electromagnetic wavelength of 1 light-nanosecond. Equivalent to 0.3 m radio band.
- 1.016703362164 nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 foot in vacuum.[n 1]
- 3.3356409519815 nanoseconds (by definition) – time taken by light to travel 1 metre in vacuum.[1]
- 8 nanoseconds – typical propagation delay of 74HC series logic chips based on HCMOS technology, commonly used for digital electronics in the mid-1980s.[2]
- 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 100 MHz (108 hertz), radio wavelength 3 m (VHF, FM band)
- 10 nanoseconds – half-life of lithium-12
- 12 nanoseconds – mean lifetime of a charged K meson[3]
- 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)
- 96 nanoseconds – Gigabit Ethernet Interpacket gap
- 100 nanoseconds – cycle time for frequency 10 MHz, radio wavelength 30 m (shortwave)
- 294.4 nanoseconds – half-life of polonium-212[4]
- 333 nanoseconds – cycle time of highest medium wave radio frequency, 3 MHz
- 500 nanoseconds – T1 time of Josephson phase qubit (see also Qubit) as of May 2005
- 1000 nanoseconds – one microsecond
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