atomicstore

Atomicstore is a storage abstraction used in concurrent and distributed systems that guarantees the atomicity of operations on a shared value. In its simplest form, reads and writes to an atomicstore appear indivisible and are ordered by a linearization point, ensuring linearizability: once a write completes, subsequent reads reflect that write.

Most atomicstores implement a basic register interface with operations such as read and write. Many models distinguish writer and reader roles (single-writer, multi-reader; multi-writer, multi-reader). Some constructions also expose compare-and-set or fetch-and-add primitives to support synchronization patterns.

Implementation approaches include replicating and coordinating state across nodes using consensus algorithms such as Paxos or Raft to achieve linearizability, or using transactional logs and durable storage to persist updates. While a single atomicstore can be used as a building block for higher-level abstractions such as atomic caches or distributed shared memory, it does not by itself solve all distributed consistency challenges.

Common use cases include coordination and synchronization in distributed systems, shared memory emulation, and the implementation of higher-level data structures that require atomic updates. Designers must consider latency, throughput, failure modes, and the chosen consistency guarantees when selecting or implementing an atomicstore.

Related concepts include linearizability, sequential consistency, atomic operations, and consensus protocols such as Paxos and Raft.