資料來源 : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

go flatline
     
        [{Cyberpunk} SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces upon
        brain-death] also "flatlined". 1. To {die}, terminate, or
        fail, especially irreversibly.  In hacker parlance, this is
        used of machines only, human death being considered somewhat
        too serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about.
     
        2. To go completely quiescent; said of machines undergoing
        controlled shutdown.  "You can suffer file damage if you shut
        down Unix but power off before the system has gone flatline."
     
        3. Of a video tube, to fail by losing vertical scan, so all
        one sees is a bright horizontal line bisecting the screen.
     
        [{Jargon File}]