a.; (also atomical)

<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)

Atomic may refer to:

• Of or relating to the atom, the smallest particle of a chemical element that retains its chemical properties
• Atomic physics, the study of the atom
• Atomic Age, also known as the "Atomic Era"
• Atomic scale, distances comparable to the dimensions of an atom
• Atom (order theory), in mathematics
• Atomic (cocktail), a champagne cocktail
• Atomic (magazine), an Australian computing and technology magazine
• Atomic Skis, an Austrian ski producer

In the field of computer science, an atomic commit is an operation that applies a set of distinct changes as a single operation. If the changes are applied, then the atomic commit is said to have succeeded.

a.