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.

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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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