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(computer science) The ability to read or write information anywhere within a storage device in an amount of time that is constant regardless of the location of the information accessed and of the location of the information previously accessed. Also known as direct access. A process in which data are accessed in nonsequential order and possibly at irregular intervals of time. Also known as single reference.
In computer science, random access is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time. The opposite is sequential access, where a remote element takes longer time to access. A typical illustration of this distinction is the ancient scroll (sequential) and the book where any random page can be flipped open immediately. A more modern example is a cassette tape (sequential—you have to fast-forward through earlier songs to get to later ones) and a compact disc (random access—you can jump right to the track you want). The term random access memory (RAM), however, is used for semiconductor chip memory circuits used in computers. (The term was also used to describe ferrite-core memory in early computers).
In data structures, random access implies the ability to access the kth entry in a list of numbers in constant time. Very few data structures can guarantee this, other than arrays (and related structures like dynamic arrays and deques). Random access is critical to many algorithms such as quicksort and binary search. Other data structures, such as linked lists, sacrifice random access to make for efficient inserts, deletes, or searches.
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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - random-access (edb)
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Français (French)
adj. - accès sélectif/aléatoire
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Deutsch (German)
adj. - mit direktem Zugriff
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Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - (Η/Υ) τυχαίας προσπέλασης
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Italiano (Italian)
ad accesso casuale
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Português (Portuguese)
adj. - acesso aleatório
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Русский (Russian)
непосредственный доступ комп. информации
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Español (Spanish)
adj. - acceso aleatorio
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Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - (data) adresserbart (motsats t sekventiell)
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
随机存取的
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中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 隨機存取的
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日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - ランダムアクセスの
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עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - של גישה אקראית או ישירה (לא לפי סדר האחסנה) לנתונים במחשב
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| random access memory | random access memory ram |
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 | Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Random access". Read more |
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