Definition of Access time

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access time
n : (computer science) the interval between the time data is requested by the system and the time the data is provided by the drive; "access time is the sum of seek time and rotational latency and command processing overhead"

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Noun
1. (computer science) the interval between the time data is requested by the system and the time the data is provided by the drive; "access time is the sum of seek time and rotational latency and command processing overhead"
(hypernym) time interval, interval
(part-meronym) seek time
(classification) computer science, computing

1. In a telecommunication system, the elapsed time between the start of an access attempt and successful access. Note: Access time values are measured only on access attempts that result in successful access. 2. In a computer, the time interval between the instant at which an instruction control unit initiates a call for data and the instant at which delivery of the data is completed. (188 ) 3. The time interval between the instant at which storage of data is requested and the instant at which storage is started. (188 ) 4. In magnetic disk devices, the time for the access arm to reach the desired track and the delay for the rotation of the disk to bring the required sector under the read-write mechanism.

The amount of time it takes the computer to find and read data from a disk or from memory. The average access time for a hard disk is based on the time it takes the head to seek and find the specified track, the time for the head to lock onto it and the time for the head to spin around until the desired sector is beneath the head.

A standard measure which indicates the level of performance of the Hard Disk . The measure is the actual time that it takes for a piece of Data to be located on the Hard Disk. The access time measurement can also be applied to memory as well ie who long it takes to locate data in the PC's memory.

The time it takes to retrieve a piece of information. With hard disks or compact discs, maximum access time is measured as the time it takes to move from one end of the disk to the other, find a piece of information, and transfer that information to RAM.

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