glitch

views updated May 18 2018

glitch / glich/ inf. • n. a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment: a draft version was lost in a computer glitch. ∎  an unexpected setback in a plan: this has been the first real glitch they've encountered in a three months' tour. ∎  Astron. a brief irregularity in the rotation of a pulsar.• v. [intr.] suffer a sudden malfunction or irregularity: her job involves troubleshooting when systems glitch.DERIVATIVES: glitch·y adj.

glitch

views updated May 29 2018

glitch An intermittent transient fault that occurs when two communicating asynchronous processes fail to complete their hardware interface protocol. It is usually caused by a flip-flop in a metastable state.

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