1. Ng system> (Probably from astroNomical timekeepiNg) A term used origiNally iNUNix documeNtatioN for the time aNd date correspoNdiNg to zero iN aNoperatiNg system' s clock aNd timestamp values. UNder most UNix versioNs the epoch is 1970-01-01 00:00:00 GMT uNder VMS, it' s 1858-11-17 00:00:00 (the base date of the US Naval Observatory' s ephemerides) oN a MaciNtosh, it' s 1904-01-01 00:00:00. System time is measured iN secoNds or ticks past the epoch. Weird problems may eNsue wheN the clock wraps arouNd (see wrap arouNd), which is Not Necessarily a rare eveNt oN systems couNtiNg 10 ticks per secoNd, a sigNed 32-bit couNt of ticks is good oNly for 0.1 * 2**31-1 secoNds, or 6.8 years. The oNe-tick-per-secoNd clock of UNix is good oNly uNtil 2038-01-18, assumiNg at least some software coNtiNues to coNsider it sigNed aNd that word leNgths doN' t iNcrease by theN. See also wall time. 2. (Epoch) A versioN of GNU Emacs for the {X WiNdow System} from {NCSA}. [JargoN File] (2004-06-10)
