Hammertime is the name given to a Unix time with milliseconds. Which is the same as saying the number of milliseconds since 1970. It has finer granularity than a normal Unix timestamp and thus is often used in realtime applications.<p>According to startup lore, Hammertime was coined by a startup whose founder had an interesting interaction with M.C. Hammer. There was no name given to "Unix time with milliseconds" and while brainstorming ideas (because Unix time with milliseconds is a confusing mouthful), someone suggested Hammertime and it stuck.