[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

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
see also:
in the pipeline 

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

pipe-line \pipe"-line`\, v. t.
   to convey by a pipe line; to furnish with a pipe line or pipe
   lines.
   webster 1913 suppl.

[3] : WordNet (r) 2.0

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
see also:
grapevine word of mouth line 

[4] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

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

[5] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

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
     
     
see also:
functional units buffer handshaking cpu instruction prefetch branch 
pipeline break 

Pipeline >> P Words
Pipeline, definition of term: Pipeline
pipeline_pag1.html

Pipeline Burst >> P Words
Pipeline Burst, definition of term: Pipeline Burst
pipeline+burst_pag1.html