After digging around a bit, it seems the term "Hungarian Riffles" is a pretty broad one that refers to the riffles found in most sluice boxes today. They can be rounded or angled. The basic idea is to disturb the flow of water and create an eddy behind the riffle so the gold will drop out of the water.
Below is a few paragraphs I thought gave a really good summary of riffles.
http://www.goldminershq.com/FRAME/FORMS/MOD2.HTM
"RIFFLES: Sluices in most cases use a riffle system. The riffles or ?riffle bars? (also called ?gold traps?) in most modern sluice boxes are of a design called ?Hungarian Riffles.? This type of riffle design has proven to be the most efficient gold recovery system. A riffle system is designed to help slow down the movement of the heavier mineral and metal through the sluice. The riffles help create an undertow behind each riffle bar to allow more time for the gold to settle and catch. As material flows over the riffles, a vortex, or eddy current is formed between each riffle opening. This force allows the heavier material to settle out of suspension and the lighter, non value bearing material to be washed away. This continuous self cleaning principal, allows a dredge to be operated for prolonged periods of time. Normal conditions require a sluice box to be cleaned only once or twice a day.
This riffle system is set up for different factors; water pressure, the size of materials being processed, and the amount of materials to pass through the sluice at any given time. The tilt or angle of the riffles; generally 10 degrees to 30 degrees; allow a curl of water behind each riffle, creating an undertow and allowing time for gravity to settle the heavier materials. Water action caused by water flow against the riffles is called a ?curl.?
The angle of the riffle may in some cases be enhanced by an additional bend in the design.
The height of the riffles allows for larger or smaller sizes, depending on what is desired to be processed and collected. The water flow over the riffles depends on how much material can be processed in a given time period. The water pressure has to be enough to pass the lighter waste materials over these riffles and out of the sluice. One must take care not to provide too much water pressure.
The sluice concentrator is considered the best wet-recovery system on the market today. The modern advances in special riffle designs, mattings and classifying systems has kept the sluice #1. Riffle systems are designed to catch gold and other precious metals in the first few riffles; in most cases the first three riffles. This allows one to occasionally check these first riffles for the amount of gold recovery during operation.
A sluice concentrator, if set-up properly and monitored, will rarely allow gold to pass farther down the riffles. The design of a sluice allows gold to be caught anywhere within the riffle section. The extra length of riffles in the sluice allows for any exceptions of loss from the first few and is for gathering the float gold which needs a longer time to settle. Exceptions are clay-packs and hardpans not broken up in the dredge hedder box, grizzly, trommel, or simply the first section of the sluice. These may tumble through the riffle section and break up releasing the gold. Another exception is the occasional rock build-up that redirects the water flow allowing the possibility of gold to skip a few or more riffles.
Cheer,
kp