jargon 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
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 flavour; most hackers now
(1994-11-29)