satunnaispääsyinen

Satunnaispääsyinen is a Finnish adjective used in information technology to describe systems, devices, or data structures that allow direct access to any storage location without the need to read data sequentially. The term is formed from satunnainen (random) and pääsy (access) with the -inen suffix, yielding a descriptor for direct-addressable access.

In computing, satunnaispääsyinen memory refers to memory that supports addressing of individual elements directly, enabling retrieval or modification of a specific datum in approximately constant time, regardless of its position. This property is often contrasted with sequential access, where data must be read in a fixed order or through traversal steps. The concept applies to hardware memories such as RAM and flash memory, as well as to software abstractions like random-access files or data structures that permit direct querying of elements by position or key.

Limitations and variations exist: while random access implies the possibility of near-constant-time access, actual performance depends on underlying technology, cache hierarchy, and access patterns. For example, disk-based storage provides random access but with higher latency than volatile memory, whereas modern solid-state memory offers much lower latency for random access.

In Finnish technical literature, satunnaispääsyinen is used to describe both hardware components and software mechanisms that support direct data access. It is commonly encountered in discussions of memory architecture, database indexing, and data structure design, where the ability to jump directly to a data location is central to performance considerations.