Pipeline

What Does Pipeline Mean?

In computing, pipeline refers to the logical queue that is filled with all the instructions for the computer processor to process in parallel. It is the process of storing and queuing tasks and instructions that are executed simultaneously by the processor in an organized way.

Techopedia Explains Pipeline

A pipeline includes processor tasks and instructions in different stages. The computer processor works on each task in the pipeline. It works differently from the FIFO (first in-first out) and LIFO (last in-first out) computing architecture, but allocates some processing time to each task in the pipeline. The pipeline enables the processing of each task in parallel rather than waiting for a task to finish and then moving onto another.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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