Ramifications of Metastability in Bit Variables Explored Via Simpson's 4-Slot Mechanism
- Lookup NU author(s)
- Dr Stephen Paynter
- Neil Henderson
- Dr James Armstrong
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| Author(s) | | Paynter SE, Henderson N, Armstrong JM |
| Publication type | | Report |
| Series Title | | School of Computing Science Technical Report Series |
| Year | | 2003 |
| Date | | January 2003 |
| Report Number | | 789 |
| Pages | | 21 |
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| Full text is available for this publication: |
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| Protocol descriptions often fail to take metastability into account. Metastability, however, can undermine protocols which depend on shared bits. In this paper, a series of increasingly realistic models of bits are developed in CSP, to explore the implications of metastability for Simpson's 4-Slot asynchronous communication mechanism. It is shown that the 4-Slot mechanism with realistic bit models preserves data-coherence, freshness, and sequencing, and is Lamport-atomic. We demonstrate that metastability can undermine the correctness of protocols demonstrated correct with Lamport-safe models of bits; furthermore, realistic bit models can demonstrate protocols correct which Lamport-safe bit models would suggest were incorrect. |
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| Institution | | School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Place Published | | Newcastle upon Tyne |
| URL | | http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/publications/trs/papers/789.pdf |
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