atomic
<jargon> (From Greek "atomos", indivisible) Indivisible; cannot be split
up.
For example, an instruction may be said to do several things "atomically", i.e.
all the things are done immediately, and there is no chance of the instruction
being half-completed or of another being interspersed. Used especially to convey
that an operation cannot be interrupted.
An atomic data type has no internal structure visible to the program. It can be
represented by a flat domain (all elements are equally defined). Machine
integers and Booleans are two examples.
An atomic database transaction is one which is guaranteed to complete
successfully or not at all. If an error prevents a partially-performed
transaction from proceeding to completion, it must be "backed out" to prevent
the database being left in an inconsistent state.
[Jargon File]
(2000-04-03)
Nearby terms:
ATMP « atob « ATOLL « atomic » A Tools
Integration Standard » ATRAC » ATS
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