Circular Buffer
Noun · Development
Definitions
A fixed-size buffer that reuses storage in a wraparound fashion, treating the end of the buffer as connected to the beginning. Circular buffers are useful for queues, streaming windows, and recent-history retention because they offer predictable memory use and efficient overwriting of old data.
In plain English: A fixed-size buffer that wraps around and reuses old space as new data arrives.
Example: "The audio pipeline used a circular buffer so the producer and consumer could exchange samples continuously without reallocating memory."