meaning of heartbeat

1. heartbeat 1. The signal emitted by a Level 2 Ethernet transceiver at the end of every packet to show that the collision-detection circuit is still connected. 2. A periodic synchronisation signal used by software or hardware, such as a bus clock or a periodic interrupt. 3. The "natural" oscillation frequency of a computers clock crystal, before frequency division down to the machines clock rate. 4. A signal emitted at regular intervals by software to demonstrate that it is still alive. Sometimes hardware is designed to reboot the machine if it stops hearing a heartbeat. See also breath-of-life packet, watchdog. [Jargon File]
2. an animating or vital unifying force; "New York is the commercial heartbeat of ">America"

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