Typical data items include integers and floating point numbers.
It is to be contrasted with a vector processor where a single instruction operates simultaneously on multiple data items (and thus is referred to as a single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) processor).
The term scalar in computing dates to the 1970 and 1980s when vector processors were first introduced.
A superscalar processor (such as the Intel P5) may execute more than one instruction during a clock cycle by simultaneously dispatching multiple instructions to redundant functional units on the processor.
Generally, all basic primitive data types are considered scalar: Some programming languages also treat strings as scalar types, while other languages treat strings as arrays or objects.