from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
circular buffer
<programming> An area of {memory} used to store a continuous
stream of data by starting again at the beginning of the
buffer after reaching the end. A circular buffer is usually
written by one process and read by another. Separate read and
write {pointers} are maintained. These are not allowed to
pass each other otherwise either unread data would be
overwritten or invalid data would be read.
A circuit may implement a {hardware circular buffer}.
(2000-06-17)