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).
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