MIPS

/M-I-P-S/

n. 

1. A measure of computing speed; formally, Million Instructions Per Second (that's 10⁶ per second, not 220!); often rendered by hackers as Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed or in other unflattering ways. This joke expresses a nearly universal attitude about the value of most benchmark claims, said attitude being one of the great cultural divides between hackers and marketroids. The singular is sometimes 1 MIP even though this is clearly etymologically wrong.

   See also KIPS and GIPS.

2. Computers, especially large computers, considered abstractly as sources of computrons.

   "This is just a workstation; the heavy MIPS are hidden in the basement."

3. The corporate name of a particular RISC-chip company; among other things, they designed the processor chips used in DEC's 3100 workstation series.
4. Acronym for Meaningless Information per Second (a joke, prob. from sense 1).