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).