Latent
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(Redirected from Latency)
Latent means that something is dormant and may become active in the future, as in a latent fault.
- Latency refers to the inevitable delays inherent in computer systems, hardware devices such as integrated circuits, or networks.
- Terms such as "latent homosexuality" mean a hidden inclination or potential for interest in the specified sexual interest or activity, which is either suppressed or not recognised, and which has not yet been explored "for real" or may never be explored in fact.
- A latent fingerprint is the identifiable impression made by a finger which is not immediately available (eg is on a difficult surface such as skin) but may be made available ("developed") by means of some appropriate technique.
- A plant may have a 'latent bud'. This means that it only reproduces in favourable conditions, but it may remain in a bud state until such conditions appear.
- The "quiet" or dormant stage of a virus. The virus just maintains its genome and does not do much else until favourable conditions for the lytic fase appear, in which the virus starts to replicate.
The term latency can refer to multiple concepts:
- Latency (engineering), a time delay between the moment something is initiated, and the moment its first effect begins.
- Latency in child sexuality, a psychoanalytic phase, extending from roughly age seven to twelve, during which sexuality is repressed or sublimated (now more commonly called "middle childhood" and "prepubescence").
- RAM latency, the amount of time a computer needs to wait to get data from RAM.
- Incubation period, the time elapsed between exposure to a pathogenic organism, or chemical or radiation, and when symptoms and signs are first apparent.
- Lag, packet latency over the Internet.
- Input lag, the latency between using an input device and the result being displayed.
