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Registers

1986; Lamport, Vitanyi, Awerbuch

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Encyclopedia of Algorithms

Keywords and Synonyms

Shared-memory (wait-free) ; Wait-free registers; Wait-free shared variables; Asynchronous communication hardware                      

Problem Definition

Consider a system of asynchronous processes that communicate among themselves by only executing read and write operations on a set of shared variables (also known as shared registers). The system has no global clock or other synchronization primitives. Every shared variable is associated with a process (called owner) which writes it and the other processes may read it. An execution of a write (read) operation on a shared variable will be referred to as a Write (Read) on that variable. A Write on a shared variable puts a value from a pre-determined finite domain into the variable, and a Read reports a value from the domain. A process that writes (reads) a variable is called a writer (reader) of the variable.

The goal is to construct shared variables in which the following two properties hold. (1) Operation executions are not...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Boolean variables are referred to as bits.

Recommended Reading

  1. Bloom, B.: Constructing two-writer atomic registers. IEEE Trans. Comput. 37(12), 1506–1514 (1988)

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  2. Burns, J.E., Peterson, G.L.: Constructing multi-reader atomic values from non-atomic values. In: Proc. 6th ACM Symp. Principles Distr. Comput., pp. 222–231. Vancouver, 10–12 August 1987

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  3. Dolev, D., Shavit, N.: Bounded concurrent time-stamp systems are constructible. SIAM J. Comput. 26(2), 418–455 (1997)

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  5. Israeli, A., Li, M.: Bounded time-stamps. Distribut. Comput. 6, 205–209 (1993) (Preliminary, more extended, version in: Proc. 28th IEEE Symp. Found. Comput. Sci., pp. 371–382, 1987.)

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  6. Israeli, A., Shaham, A.: Optimal multi-writer multireader atomic register. In: Proc. 11th ACM Symp. Principles Distr. Comput., pp. 71–82. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 10–12 August 1992

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  7. Kirousis, L.M., Kranakis, E., Vitányi, P.M.B.: Atomic multireader register. In: Proc. Workshop Distributed Algorithms. Lect Notes Comput Sci, vol 312, pp. 278–296. Springer, Berlin (1987)

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  8. Lamport, L.: On interprocess communication—Part I: Basic formalism, Part II: Algorithms. Distrib. Comput. 1(2), 77–101 (1986)

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  9. Li, M., Tromp, J., Vitányi, P.M.B.: How to share concurrent wait-free variables. J. ACM 43(4), 723–746 (1996) (Preliminary version: Li, M., Vitányi, P.M.B. A very simple construction for atomic multiwriter register. Tech. Rept. TR-01–87, Computer Science Dept., Harvard University, Nov. 1987)

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  12. Singh, A.K., Anderson, J.H., Gouda, M.G.: The elusive atomic register. J. ACM 41(2), 311–339 (1994) (Preliminary version in: Proc. 6th ACM Symp. Principles Distribt. Comput., 1987)

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  13. Tromp, J.: How to construct an atomic variable. In: Proc. Workshop Distrib. Algorithms. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 392, pp. 292–302. Springer, Berlin (1989)

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  14. Vitányi, P.M.B., Awerbuch, B.: Atomic shared register access by asynchronous hardware. In: Proc. 27th IEEE Symp. Found. Comput. Sci. pp. 233–243. Los Angeles, 27–29 October 1987. Errata, Proc. 28th IEEE Symp. Found. Comput. Sci., pp. 487–487. Los Angeles, 27–29 October 1987

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CWI, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Paul Vitányi

Authors
  1. Paul Vitányi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceMcCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Ming-Yang Kao Professor of Computer Science

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Vitányi, P. (2008). Registers. In: Kao, MY. (eds) Encyclopedia of Algorithms. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30162-4_338

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