Release consistency is one of the consistency models used in the domain of the concurrent programming (e.g. in distributed shared memory, distributed transactions etc.).
Systems of this kind are characterised by the existence of two special synchronisation operations, release and acquire. Before issuing a write to a memory object a node must acquire the object via a special operation, and later release it. Therefore the application that runs within the operation acquire and release constitutes the critical region. The system is said to provide release consistency, if all write operations by a certain node are seen by the other nodes after the former releases the object and before the latter acquire it.
There are two kinds of coherence protocols that implement release consistency:
- eager, where all coherence actions are performed on release operations, and
- lazy, where all coherence actions are delayed until after a subsequent acquire
Famous quotes containing the words release and/or consistency:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)