TL/DR: Latency is the delay between a user's action and the system's response, commonly measured in milliseconds. In tech, lower latency means faster responsiveness, crucial for real-time applications like video streaming, online gaming, and surveillance.
Latency is the time it takes for data to travel from a source to a destination and for the system to respond. It is usually measured in milliseconds and is a key factor in determining how quickly a user action receives a response. In digital systems, latency includes delays in processing, transmitting, and receiving data. For example, in video surveillance, latency refers to the delay between a live event occurring and the display of that event on a monitor.
Latency affects applications that require immediate feedback, such as online gaming, live streaming, and real-time monitoring. Higher latency can cause delays that disrupt user experience, while lower latency allows for smoother, more synchronized interactions.
CAS latency, or Column Address Strobe (CAS) latency, is the delay time between when a memory controller requests data from a specific column in a computer's RAM (Random Access Memory) and when that data is actually available. CAS latency is measured in clock cycles, with a lower CAS latency indicating faster memory response times.
In technical terms, if a memory module has a CAS latency of 16, it takes 16 clock cycles for the data to be ready after the request. CAS latency is one of several factors that affect memory performance, with lower CAS values generally improving speed, especially in applications that frequently access RAM, such as gaming or high-performance computing tasks.
A good latency speed depends on the application:
In general, lower latency improves performance in applications requiring real-time responsiveness, but what is "good" often varies by the specific needs of each use case.