Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Linear dynamic Kahn networks are deterministic

  • Contributed Papers
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 1996 (MFCS 1996)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1113))

Abstract

The (first part of the) Kahn principle states that networks with deterministic nodes are deterministic on the I/O level: for each network, different executions provided with the same input streams deliver the same output stream. The Kahn principle has thus far not been proved for dynamic, non-deterministic networks.

We consider a simple language L containing the fork-statement. For this language we define a non-deterministic transition system which defines all interleavings consisting of basic steps, for all possible executions of a program. We prove that, although on the execution level there is much nondeterminism, this nondeterminism disappears because all executions deliver the same output stream (or a prefix of it), given the same input stream. This proves the Kahn principle for linear, non-deterministic dynamic networks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Arvind and K.P. Gostelow, Some relationships between asynchronous interpreters of a data flow language, in: Formal description of programming concepts, W.J. Neuhold (ed.), pp. 95–119, North-Holland, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  2. A. Arnold, Sémantique des processus communicants, RAIRO Theor.Inf. 15, 2, pp.103–139, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  3. A. de Bruin, Experiments with continuation semantics: jumps, backtracking, dynamic networks, Ph.D. Thesis, Free University Amsterdam, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  4. M. Broy, Nondeterministic data flow programs: how to avoid the merge anomaly, Science of Computer Programming, 10, pp.65–85, 1988.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. J. Brock and W. Ackerman, Scenarios: a model of non-determinate computation, in: Formalization of programming concepts, LNCS 107,pp.252–259, Springer, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  6. J. W. de Bakker, F. van Breugel and A. de Bruin, Comparative semantics for linear arrays of communicating processes, a study of the UNIX fork and pipe commands, in: A.M. Borzyszkowski and S. Sokolowski (eds.) Proc. Math. Foundations of Computer Science, LNCS 711, pp.252–261, Springer, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  7. A. P. W. Böhm and A. de Bruin, The denotational semantics of dynamic networks of processes, ACM Trans. Prog. Lang. Syst, 7, pp.656–679, 1985.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. A. de Bruin, S. H. Nienhuys-Cheng, Towards a proof of the Kahn principle for linear dynamic networks. Technical report cs-eur-94-06, Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Obtainable by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.few.eur.nl from directory pub/doc/techreports/1994 as eur-cs-94-06.

    Google Scholar 

  9. J.M. Cadiou, Recursive definitions of partial functions and their computations, Ph.D. thesis, Stanford Univ., 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  10. A.A. Faustini, An operational semantics for pure data flow, in: Automata, languages and programming, 9th. Coll., LNCS 140, M.Nielsen and E.M. Schmidt (eds.), pp.212–224, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  11. B. Jonsson and J.N. Kok, Towards a complete hierarchy of compositional dataflow networks, in: Proc. theoretical aspects of computer software, LNCS 526, pp.204–225, Springer, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  12. G. Kahn, The semantics of a simple language for parallel programming,in: Proc. IFIP74, J.L. Rosenfeld (ed.), North-Holland, pp.471–475, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  13. J. Kok, Denotational semantics of nets with nondeterminism, in: European Symp. Programming, Saarbrücken, LNCS 206, pp.237–249, Springer, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  14. P. Kosinski, A straight-forward denotational semantics for nondeterminate data flow programs, in: Proc. 5th ACM PoPL, pp.214–219, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  15. G. Kahn and D.B. MacQueen, Coroutines and networks of parallel processes, in: Proc. IFIP77, B. Gilchrist (ed.), North-Holland, pp.993–998, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  16. N. Lynch and E. Stark, A proof of the Kahn principle for input/output automata, Information and Computation, 82, 1, pp.81–92, 1989.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. J. Staples and V. Nguyen, A fixpoint semantics for nondeterministic data flow, JACM, 32 (2), pp.411–444, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  18. S. H. Nienhuys-Cheng and A. de Bruin, A proof of Kahn's fixed-point characterization for linear dynamic networks (preprint, also to appear as technical report)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departement of Computer Science, H4-19, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000DR, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

    Arie de Bruin & S. H. Nienhuys-Cheng

Authors
  1. Arie de Bruin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. H. Nienhuys-Cheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Wojciech Penczek Andrzej Szałas

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

de Bruin, A., Nienhuys-Cheng, S.H. (1996). Linear dynamic Kahn networks are deterministic. In: Penczek, W., Szałas, A. (eds) Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 1996. MFCS 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1113. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61550-4_152

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61550-4_152

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61550-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70597-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation