Abstract
In Java, some memory updates are necessarily visible to some threads but never to others. A definition of Java memory consistency must take this fact into consideration to capture the semantics of non-terminating systems, such as a Java operating system. This paper presents a programmer-centered formal definition of Java memory behavior that captures those semantics.
Our definition is employed to prove that it is impossible to provide fundamental process coordination in Java, such as critical sections and producer/consumer coordination, without the use of the synchronized and volatile constructs. However, we introduce a form of synchronization that is weaker than volatiles and would suffice to solve some of these problems in Java.
This work was supported in part by research grant OGP0041900 and a post-graduate scholarship both from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
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Higham, L., Kawash, J. (1998). Java: Memory consistency and process coordination. In: Kutten, S. (eds) Distributed Computing. DISC 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1499. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0056484
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0056484
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