Linear refers to anything oriented or occurring in a specific order, without deviation.
In computing, linear access, also called sequential access, refers to data that is always accessed one item after the next. To seek the 100th item of data, items 0 through 99 cannot be ignored, and factors into the seek time. An example of a storage medium that employs linear access methods is a tape drive.
Linear data access is slower than direct access (also called “random access”), where data may be accessed directly at an arbitrary location in the medium.
Examples of random-access media include HDDs, SSDs, and RAM.
Immediate access, Linear search, Tape drive terms
