1. A unit of frequency equal to one billion cycles per second; one gigahertz (GHz).
Usage: technical; electronics and computing

Examples

• The processor operates at a speed of 3 gigacycles per second.
• Modern CPUs often run at frequencies measured in gigacycles.
• The radio transmitter broadcasts at a frequency of 2.4 gigacycles.
• Engineers specified the circuit to handle signals up to 5 gigacycles.
• The oscilloscope can measure frequencies in the gigacycle range.