1. <
mathematics> A single number, as opposed to a
vector or
matrix of numbers. Thus, for example, "
scalar
multiplication" refers to the operation of multiplying one
number (one
scalar) by another and is used to contrast this
with "matrix multiplication" etc.
2. <
architecture> In a
parallel processor or {vector
processor}, the "
scalar processor" handles all the sequential
operations - those which cannot be parallelised or vectorised.
See also
superscalar.
3. <
programming> Any data type that stores a single value
(e.g. a number or
Boolean), as opposed to an
aggregate
data type that has many elements. A
string is regarded as a
scalar in some languages (e.g.
Perl) and a vector of
characters in others (e.g.
C).
(2002-06-12)