A computer comprising one or more processors and memory may implement an atomic compare and swap (CAS) operation on multiple data elements. Each data element has a corresponding descriptor which includes a new value and a reference to a controlling descriptor for the CAS operation. The controlling descriptor includes a status value which indicates whether the CAS operation is in progress or has completed. The operation first allocates memory locations of the data elements by writing addresses of respective descriptors to the memory locations using CAS instructions. The operation then writes successful status to the status value of the controlling descriptor to indicate that the respective memory locations are no longer allocated. The operation then returns an indicator of successful completion without atomically updating the memory locations with the new values. Extensions are further described to implement CAS operations in non-volatile random access memories.