throughput

1. General: Productivity of a machine, procedure, process, or system over a unit period, expressed in a figure-of-merit or a term meaningful in the given context, such as output per hour, cash turnover, number of orders shipped.

2. Computing: Measure of a computer system's overall performance in sending data through all its components, such as the processor, buses, storage devices. Throughput is more meaningful indicator of system performance than raw clock speed (now measured in gigahertzs) advertised by computer vendors.

3. Data communications: (1) Measure of the efficiency of a network expressed as the data transfer rate of useful and non-redundant information. It depends on factors such as bandwidth, line congestion, error correction, etc. (2) In computer to computer data transfer, it is expressed as the product of data transfer rate of the modem and data compression ratio.

4. Internet: Measure of a website server's performance expressed as number of data requests handled in a unit period.

5. Manufacturing: User-measured processing speed of a machine expressed as total output in a unit period (usually an hour) under normal operating conditions. It includes operator caused delays and therefore differs from the machine vendor's rated speed which is often the machine's best output capability under optimum operating conditions.