Direct access

In telecommunication, the term direct access has the following meanings:

1. The capability to obtain data from a storage device, or to enter data into a storage device, in a sequence independent of their relative positions by means of addresses that indicate the physical location of the data.

2. Pertaining to the organization and access method that must be used for a storage structure in which locations of records are determined by their keys, without reference to an index or to other records that may have been previously accessed.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C