1ns

1 nanosecond (1 ns) is a unit of time equal to one billionth of a second. It is an SI-derived unit formed from the prefix nano- (10^-9) and the second. The symbol ns denotes one nanosecond. In decimal terms, 1 ns equals 0.000000001 s, or 10^-9 s. It is also equal to 1000 picoseconds or 0.001 microseconds. The corresponding frequency, the reciprocal of the period, is 1 GHz (one billion cycles per second).

In physical terms, many processes in electronics and photonics occur on nanosecond timescales. Digital electronics often target nanosecond-scale timing; a one-gigahertz clock has a period of about 1 ns. Memory access latencies and data-bus timings are commonly expressed in nanoseconds. In communications, propagation delays over short links are frequently measured in nanoseconds.

Light travels about 0.3 meters in 1 ns in vacuum, making nanoseconds a useful unit for describing timing diagrams and signal integrity in high-speed systems.

Measurement and instrumentation: Nanosecond-scale timing is routinely captured with devices such as high-speed oscilloscopes, time interval analyzers, and precision counters. The achievable accuracy and jitter of such equipment determine how precisely events separated by nanoseconds can be distinguished.