Transdichotomous model

In computational complexity theory, and more specifically in the analysis of

algorithms with integer data, the transdichotomous model is a variation of
the random access machine in which the machine word size is assumed to match the
problem size. The model was proposed by Michael Fredman and Dan Willard, who
chose its name "because the dichotomy between the machine model and the problem
size is crossed in a reasonable manner."

In a problem such as integer sorting in which there are n integers to be sorted, the
transdichotomous model assumes that each integer may be stored in a single word
of computer memory, that operations on single words take constant time per
operation, and that the number of bits that can be stored in a single word is at
least log2n. The goal of complexity analysis in this model is to find time bounds that
depend only on n and not on the actual size of the input values or the machine
words. In modeling integer computation, it is necessary to assume that machine
words are limited in size, because models with unlimited precision are unreasonably
powerful (able to solve PSPACE-complete problems in polynomial time). The
transdichotomous model makes a minimal assumption of this type: that there is some
limit, and that the limit is large enough to allow random access indexing into the
input data.

As well as its application to integer sorting, the transdichotomous model has also
been applied to the design of priority queues and to problems in computational
geometry and graph algorithms.