Atomic Semantics is a term which describes the guarantees provided by a data register shared by several processors in a parallel machine or in a network of computers working together.
Atomic semantics are defined for a variable with a single writer but multiple readers. These semantics are very strong: they guarantee that the read and write operations to the variable behave exactly as if they happened instantaneously in some point in time which is within the actual time where the operation took place.
Famous quotes containing the word atomic:
“When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967)