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A tickless kernel is an operating system kernel in which timer interrupts do not occur at regular intervals, but are only delivered as required.cite-ref-ars-technica-win8-1-0[1]

The Linux kernel on s390 from 2.6.6cite-ref-lwn-torvalds-2-0[2] and on i386 from release 2.6.21cite-ref-lwn-corbet-3-0[3] can be configured to turn the timer tick off (tickless or dynamic tick) for idle CPUs using CONFIG_NO_HZ, and from 3.10 with CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE extended for non-idle processors with CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL.cite-ref-full-tickless-4-0[4] The XNU kernel from Mac OS X 10.4 on, and the NT kernel from Windows 8 on, are also tickless.cite-ref-ars-technica-win8-1-1[1] The Solaris 8 kernel introduced the cyclic subsystem which allows arbitrary resolution timers and tickless operation.cite-ref-solaris-tickless-5-0[5] FreeBSD 9 introduced a "dynamic tick mode" (aka tickless).cite-ref-freebsd-dynamic-tick-6-0[6]

As of 2020, there is a plan to add this to MINIX 3cite-ref-7[7] in the medium term.cite-ref-8[8]

cite-note-ars-technica-win8-11. ↑ citerefbright2012Bright, Peter (October 28, 2012). "Better on the inside: under the hood of Windows 8". Ars Technica. section "Tick tock".

cite-note-lwn-torvalds-22. ↑ "Linux 2.6.6-rc3". Lwn.net. Retrieved 2015-04-09.

cite-note-lwn-corbet-33. ↑ "Clockevents and dyntick". Lwn.net. 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2015-04-09.

cite-note-full-tickless-44. ↑ "(Nearly) full tickless operation in 3.10". Lwn.net. Retrieved 2015-04-09.

cite-note-solaris-tickless-55. ↑ "Bryan Cantrill (former Solaris kernel engineer) comment". Retrieved 2017-01-07..

cite-note-freebsd-dynamic-tick-66. ↑ "What's cooking for FreeBSD 9?".

cite-note-77. ↑ "Tickless Kernel". Retrieved 25 February 2020.

cite-note-88. ↑ "The MINIX 3 Road Map". Retrieved 25 February 2020.