FIFO

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

FIFO
    n 1: inventory accounting in which the oldest items (those first
         acquired) are assumed to be the first sold [syn: {first in
         first out}, {FIFO}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

FIFO \FIFO\ (f[imac]"f[=o]), a. [acronym, First In First Out.]
   1. (accounting) an accounting method in which goods in
      inventory are valued at the price of the most recent
      acquisition of each type of goods, and those used up from
      inventory are valued at the cost of those first acquired.
      [PJC]

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

first-in first-out
FIFO

   <algorithm> (FIFO, or "queue") A data structure or hardware
   buffer from which items are taken out in the same order they
   were put in.  Also known as a "shelf" from the analogy with
   pushing items onto one end of a shelf so that they fall off
   the other.  A FIFO is useful for buffering a stream of data
   between a sender and receiver which are not synchronised -
   i.e. not sending and receiving at exactly the same rate.
   Obviously if the rates differ by too much in one direction for
   too long then the FIFO will become either full ({block}ing the
   sender) or empty ({block}ing the receiver).  A {Unix} {pipe}
   is a common example of a FIFO.

   A FIFO might be (but isn't ever?) called a LILO - last-in
   last-out.  The opposite of a FIFO is a LIFO (last-in
   first-out) or "{stack}".

   (1999-12-06)

from V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2006)

FIFO
       First In First Out (CPU)