Atomic and Composite Instructions

Instructions in a task are categorized into two types: atomic and composite.

1. Atomic Instructions These are simple, indivisible operations that can be directly executed by the system’s Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). For example:

   • arith.mul (multiplication of two ciphertexts). Atomic instructions require no further breakdown and are ready to be executed as-is.

2. Composite Instructions These are higher-level operations that consist of multiple atomic instructions. For example:

   • polycircuit.relu (a non-linear activation function). A composite instruction like RELU might be implemented as a sequence of comparisons, multiplications, and additions.

   The orchestration layer can unroll composite instructions into their atomic components when:

   • No system actor is available to execute the composite instruction directly.

   • Breaking the composite instruction down allows better parallel execution or resource usage.