Transmission Protocols for Instruction Streams

Abstract

Abstract. Threads as considered in thread algebra model behaviours to be controlled by some execution environment: upon each action performed by a thread, a reply from its execution environment -which takes the action as an instruction to be processed -determines how the thread proceeds. In this paper, we are concerned with the case where the execution environment is remote: we describe and analyse some transmission protocols for passing instructions from a thread to a remote execution environment.

Putting Instruction Sequences into Effect

“…form of running, a process which is sometimes referred to as debugging (even in the absence of bugs that might be found or repaired). 18 Executions of X may not exist. As "execution of X" refers to a subclass of "putting X into effect", that subclass may be empty.…”

“…Performance related matters of instruction sequences have also been investigated in the spirit of the theory of computation [16]. Moreover, in the area of computer architectures, basic techniques aimed at increasing processor performance have been investigated from that viewpoint [9,12], and the instruction streams that arise on execution of instruction sequences [18] have been studied. The results of these investigations are evidence of the workability of the viewpoint that a program is an instruction sequence.…”

On the Behaviours Produced by Instruction Sequences under Execution

“…As another continuation of the work on a new approach to programming language semantics mentioned above, selected issues relating to well-known subjects from the theory of computation and the area of computer architecture were rigorously investigated thinking in terms of instruction sequences (see e.g. [14,15,16,17,19]). The subjects from the theory of computation, namely the halting problem and non-uniform computational complexity, are usually investigated thinking in terms of a common model of computation such as Turing machines and Boolean circuits (see e.g.…”