Editing Linearizability (section)

== History ==
Linearizability was first introduced as a [[consistency model]] by [[Maurice Herlihy|Herlihy]] and [[Jeannette Wing|Wing]] in 1987. It encompassed more restrictive definitions of atomic, such as "an atomic operation is one which cannot be (or is not) interrupted by concurrent operations", which are usually vague about when an operation is considered to begin and end.

An atomic object can be understood immediately and completely from its sequential definition, as a set of operations run in parallel which always appear to occur one after the other; no inconsistencies may emerge. Specifically, linearizability guarantees that the [[Invariant (computer science)|invariants]] of a system are ''observed'' and ''preserved'' by all operations: if all operations individually preserve an invariant, the system as a whole will.