There is too much confusion in the “formal methods” computer science literature between these three different terms. Let me start with what this means for a state machine and then move on to engineering objects such as threads. Suppose we
Process algebra reconsidered
Paper is here. The following incorrect claim is not unusual in the process algebra literature. Basically, what is missing [in classical automata theory] is the notion of interaction: during the execution from initial state to fi nal state, a system may
Deterministic multithreading
An interesting paper appearing in ASPLOS proceedings provides a “deterministic” locking method Kendo enforces a deterministic interleaving of lock acquisitions and specially declared non-protected reads through a novel dynamically load-balanced deterministic scheduling algorithm. The algorithm tracks the progress of each
Are threads evil? (updated)
This paper by Prof. Edward Lee explains something of why “threads” are such a painful abstraction. As Prof. Lee notes, threads intrinsically create unspecified program operation (which he calls non-determinism) and resource conflicts which we then attempt to “prune” via