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 thrash ing 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 ).

