[W/K] :: pipeline

  pipeline \pipeline\, pipe line \pipe line\
     1. A line of pipe with pumping machinery and apparatus for
        conveying liquids, gases, or finely divided solids, such
        as petroleum or natural gas, between distant points.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]
  
     2. fig. an information channel direct from the source.
        [PJC]
  
     3. the set of stages and processes from the invention or
        design of a product to its ultimate use, production, or
        commercial sale. Used commonly in the phrase
  
     in the pipeline, i. e. still in preparation or under
        development.
        [PJC]

  Pipe-line \Pipe"-line`\, v. t.
     To convey by a pipe line; to furnish with a pipe line or pipe
     lines.
     [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

  pipeline
       n 1: gossip spread by spoken communication; "the news of their
            affair was spread by word of mouth" [syn: grapevine, word
            of mouth]
       2: a pipe used to transport liquids or gases; "a pipeline runs
          from the wells to the seaport" [syn: line]

  67 Moby Thesaurus words for "pipeline":
     adjutage, bush telegraph, catheter, channel, coming, conduit,
     confidential information, connection, contact, conveyor, cooking,
     drainpipe, duct, efflux tube, fire hose, flue pipe, flume, funnel,
     garden hose, gas pipe, grapevine, grapevine telegraph, hose,
     hosepipe, imminent, in the offing, in the works, inside dope,
     inside information, insider, line, main, nipple, on the way,
     organ pipe, origin, passage, pipe, pipette, piping,
     put through channels, ready, reed, reed pipe, siamese,
     siamese connection, siphon, snorkel, soil pipe, source, standpipe,
     steam pipe, stem, straw, supplier, tap, the lowdown, tube, tubing,
     tubulation, tubule, tubulet, tubulure, under way, waste pipe,
     water pipe, wellspring
  
  

  pipeline
       
           A sequence of functional units ("stages")
          which performs a task in several steps, like an assembly line
          in a factory.  Each functional unit takes inputs and produces
          outputs which are stored in its output buffer.  One stage's
          output buffer is the next stage's input buffer.  This
          arrangement allows all the stages to work in parallel thus
          giving greater throughput than if each input had to pass
          through the whole pipeline before the next input could enter.
       
          The costs are greater latency and complexity due to the need
          to synchronise the stages in some way so that different inputs
          do not interfere.  The pipeline will only work at full
          efficiency if it can be filled and emptied at the same rate
          that it can process.
       
          Pipelines may be synchronous or asynchronous.  A synchronous
          pipeline has a master clock and each stage must complete its
          work within one cycle.  The minimum clock period is thus
          determined by the slowest stage.  An asynchronous pipeline
          requires handshaking between stages so that a new output is
          not written to the interstage buffer before the previous one
          has been used.
       
          Many CPUs are arranged as one or more pipelines, with
          different stages performing tasks such as fetch instruction,
          decode instruction, fetch arguments, arithmetic operations,
          store results.  For maximum performance, these rely on a
          continuous stream of instructions fetched from sequential
          locations in memory.  Pipelining is often combined with
          instruction prefetch in an attempt to keep the pipeline
          busy.
       
          When a branch is taken, the contents of early stages will
          contain instructions from locations after the branch which
          should not be executed.  The pipeline then has to be flushed
          and reloaded.  This is known as a pipeline break.
       
          (1996-10-13)