Relaxed Operational Semantics of Concurrent Programming Languages

Gérard Boudol
(INRIA Sophia Antipolis)
Gustavo Petri
(Purdue University)
Bernard Serpette
(INRIA Sophia Antipolis)

We propose a novel, operational framework to formally describe the semantics of concurrent programs running within the context of a relaxed memory model. Our framework features a "temporary store" where the memory operations issued by the threads are recorded, in program order. A memory model then specifies the conditions under which a pending operation from this sequence is allowed to be globally performed, possibly out of order. The memory model also involves a "write grain," accounting for architectures where a thread may read a write that is not yet globally visible. Our formal model is supported by a software simulator, allowing us to run litmus tests in our semantics.

In Bas Luttik and Michel A. Reniers: Proceedings Combined 19th International Workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency and 9th Workshop on Structured Operational Semantics (EXPRESS/SOS 2012), Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, September 3, 2012, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 89, pp. 19–33.
Published: 12th August 2012.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.89.3 bibtex PDF
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