average seek time
The mean time it takes to move the {head} of a {disk
drive} from one {track} to another, averaged over the source
and destination cylinders.
The average seek time gives a good measure of the speed of the
drive in a multi-user environment where successive read/write
request are largely uncorrelated.
Ten ms is common for a {hard disk} and 200 ms for an
eight-speed {CD-ROM}.
(1997-07-22)