Simple abstraction model of computing based on a hypothetical Random Access Machine
- Each simple operation (
+, *, -, =, if, call)takes one time step - Loops and subroutines are not simple operations.
- Considered to be composition of many single-step operations
- Each memory access takes one time step
We measure run time by counting the number of steps an algorithm takes on a given problem instance.
Based on this model we can calculate Algorithmic Complexity.