This looks like lock escalation to the "block" level, (or simply lock granularity = block), not write consistency ? Interesting fact either way, thanks for pointing it out :)
A simplest test: a) create table with single column (for example) without indexes and fill it with 2 rows with different values b) in session#1 update the first (yep, i know about order by :o) inserted row, do not commit c) try to update the second row in session#2 - session is blocked We've also played with a "range scan" of nonunique indexed column of two-column table, just to be sure that there is nothing special in "FULL SCAN".
-- Alberto Dell'Era "Per aspera ad astra" -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l