overrun
n. 1. [techspeak] Term for a frequent consequence of data
arriving faster than it can be consumed, esp. in serial line
communications. For example, at 9600 baud there is almost exactly
one character per millisecond, so if a silo can hold only two
characters and the machine takes longer than 2 msec to get to
service the interrupt, at least one character will be lost.
2. Also applied to non-serial-I/O communications. "I forgot to
pay my electric bill due to mail overrun." "Sorry, I got four
phone calls in 3 minutes last night and lost your message to
overrun." When thrashing at tasks, the next person to make a
request might be told "Overrun!" Compare firehose syndrome.
3. More loosely, may refer to a buffer overflow
not necessarily related to processing time (as in overrun screw).
