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Observers, experiments, and agents: A comprehensive approach to parallelism

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Semantics of Systems of Concurrent Processes (LITP 1990)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 469))

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce an enriched categorical approach which provides a unifying theory for many notions of parallelism and concurrency. Our constructions are based on a concept of observational equivalence induced by a set of observers, which perform experiments over agents. The outcome of those experiments is a set of computations together with an agreement information. In order to model parallel agents and their behaviours we use categories enriched over a bicategory. They provide an abstract framework with entities at three levels: i) observers at level 0, ii) experiments at level 1, and iii) computing agents at level 2. This comprehensive framework is parametric with respect to the nature of the observers, which may observe totally or partially ordered sets of actions in a discrete or continuous manner. The relationship between various models for parallelism can be expressed in terms of the change of the base bicategory of observers.

This work has been partially supported by the "Progetto Finalizzato Sistemi Informatici e Calcolo Parallelo", CNR, Italy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mathematics Department, Milan University, Milan, Italy

    Stefano Kasangian

  2. Mathematics Department, Rome University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy

    Anna Labella

  3. Electronics Department, Rome University Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Alberto Pettorossi

Authors
  1. Stefano Kasangian
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  2. Anna Labella
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  3. Alberto Pettorossi
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Editor information

Irène Guessarian

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag

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Kasangian, S., Labella, A., Pettorossi, A. (1990). Observers, experiments, and agents: A comprehensive approach to parallelism. In: Guessarian, I. (eds) Semantics of Systems of Concurrent Processes. LITP 1990. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 469. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53479-2_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53479-2_16

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-53479-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46897-4

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