Configuration Theories

The Java Memory Model: Operationally, Denotationally, Axiomatically

“…The differences with the present work are in the kind of maps decorating the sequents (total in [6], partial here) and in the notion of interpretation (quantifying over configurations vs. traces). Partial maps yield a stronger system, in which the old rules are derivable.…”

“…The formal system of poset sequents introduced in [6] featured inference rules mimicking the structural rules of Gentzen's sequent calculus. The differences with the present work are in the kind of maps decorating the sequents (total in [6], partial here) and in the notion of interpretation (quantifying over configurations vs. traces).…”

“…Unfortunately, many structures naturally arising in the semantics of concurrent systems are not stable; A, for instance, is not. More general structures than the stable have been studied in the literature [4,5,6,7]. The monotone configuration structures of [6], e.g., (of which A is one) are those where causal dependency is preserved by inclusion of configurations, indeed a minimal requirement for monotonic reasoning about states of computation.…”

“…More general structures than the stable have been studied in the literature [4,5,6,7]. The monotone configuration structures of [6], e.g., (of which A is one) are those where causal dependency is preserved by inclusion of configurations, indeed a minimal requirement for monotonic reasoning about states of computation. However, consider an easy program where two threads both assign the value 42 to x (call a and b these events) while a third thread reads this value from x (event c).…”

“…Configuration theories were proposed in [6] as an axiomatic approach to the semantics of concurrent systems and are further developed here to capture mutual exclusion. A configuration theory is a set of poset sequents which is closed under deduction.…”