Abstract
We use a structured top-down approach to develop algorithms for atomic variables shared by concurrent asynchronous wait-free processes, starting from the problem specification. By this design we obtain a better understanding of what the algorithms do, why they do it, and that they correctly implement the specification. Our main construction of a multiwriter variable directly from 1-writer 1-reader variables is the first such construction. Simplifications yield multireader algorithms and multiwriter algorithms. The complexity improves that of known algorithms, in the cases where there were any. Our algorithms are timestamp based. We use a new “shooting” technique to recycle used timestamps.
M. Li was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant DCR-8606366 at Ohio State University, by Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-85-K-0445 and Army Research Office Grant DAAL03-86-K-0171 at Harvard University, and by an NSERC operating grant at York.
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References
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Li, M., Vitanyi, P.M.B. (1989). How to share concurrent asynchronous wait-free variables. In: Ausiello, G., Dezani-Ciancaglini, M., Della Rocca, S.R. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. ICALP 1989. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 372. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0035779
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0035779
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