wait state

wait state

The time spent waiting for an operation to take place. It may refer to a variable length of time a program has to wait before it can process, or to a fixed duration of time, such as a machine cycle.

When memory is too slow to respond to the CPU's request for it, wait states are introduced until the memory can catch up.

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wait state [′wāt ‚stāt]

(computer science)

The state of a computer program in which it cannot use the central processing unit normally because the unit is waiting to complete an input/output operation.

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(architecture)

wait state - A delay of one or more clock cycles added to a processor's instruction execution time to allow it to communicate with slow external devices. The number and duration of wait states may be pre-configured or they may be controlled dynamically via certain control lines.