Definition

1. Noun:
   • (computer science) a unit for measuring the speed of a computer system: An "mflop" is a unit of computing speed equal to one million floating-point operations per second. It is used to measure the performance of a computer's processor, particularly in scientific and engineering calculations.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The new supercomputer can perform at a rate of 500 mflops.
  • They needed a processor capable of at least 100 mflops to run the complex simulation.

Advanced Usage

• As a performance metric: While "mflop" was a common benchmark, it has largely been superseded by larger units like "gigaflops" (GFLOPs) and "teraflops" (TFLOPs) due to advances in computing power.
  • Early scientific workstations were often rated in mflops.

Variants and Related Words

• Megaflop: A full term synonymous with "mflop," where "mega-" denotes the factor of one million.
• FLOPS (Floating-Point Operations Per Second): The general term for this type of measurement. "Mflop" is a specific instance (one million FLOPS).
• Gigaflop (GFLOP): One billion floating-point operations per second.
• Teraflop (TFLOP): One trillion floating-point operations per second.

Synonyms

• MegaFLOPS: The more formal or spelled-out equivalent.
• MFLOPS: An alternative acronym with the same meaning.

Notes on Usage

• The term is primarily technical and used in the context of computer hardware performance, especially in historical or specific computational discussions.
• It is considered an obsolete unit for measuring modern high-performance computers but remains relevant for understanding historical performance benchmarks.

Noun

1. (computer science) a unit for measuring the speed of a computer system