cycle crunch: n.,obs. A situation wherein the number of people
trying to use a computer simultaneously has reached the point where
no one can get enough cycles because they are spread too thin and
the system has probably begun to thrash. This scenario is an
inevitable result of Parkinson's Law applied to timesharing.
Usually the only solution is to buy more computer. Happily, this
has rapidly become easier since the mid-1980s, so much so that the
very term `cycle crunch' now has a faintly archaic flavor; most
hackers now use workstations or personal computers as opposed to
traditional timesharing systems, and are far more likely to complain
of `bandwidth crunch' on their shared networks rather than cycle
crunch.
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