isochronous

Isochronous describes a situation where events occur at equal time intervals or with a constant period. The term comes from the Greek isos meaning equal and chronos meaning time. In practice, isochrony implies a regular cadence, though real systems may only approximate it and tolerate some jitter.

In physics and mechanics, isochrony is a property where the period of a motion is constant regardless of amplitude or starting point. A classical example is the ideal pendulum, whose period is independent of small swings, a principle that underpins pendulum clocks. In general, many simple harmonic systems exhibit isochronous behavior, while real-world deviations can occur due to nonlinearities or external forces.

In data communications and media streaming, isochronous transmission refers to delivering data at a steady, bounded rate to support real-time audio or video. Such transfers guarantee a fixed bandwidth and predictable latency but may sacrifice reliability, since they often do not include robust error recovery. USB isochronous transfers, for instance, allocate dedicated bandwidth for continuous streams like live audio or video.

Other uses include music and rhythm, where isochronous timing describes evenly spaced beats, and linguistics, where isochrony (rhythmic timing of syllables) has been used to describe tempo patterns in languages, though this usage is debated and not universally applied.

See also: synchronization, jitter, isochronous center (in differential equations), isochronism (pendulums), uniform motion.