Citation
Ye Zhou, Edward A. Lee. "Causality Interfaces for Actor Networks". Technical report, University of California, Berkeley, UCB/EECS-2006-148, November, 2006.

Abstract
We consider concurrent models of computation where "actors" (components that are in charge of their own actions) communicate by exchanging messages. The interfaces of actors principally consist of "ports," which mediate the exchange of messages. Actor-oriented architectures contrast with and complement object-oriented models by emphasizing the exchange of data between concurrent components rather than transformation of state. Examples of such models of computation include the classical actor model, synchronous languages, dataflow models, process networks, and discrete-event models. Many experimental and production languages used to design embedded systems are actor oriented and based on one of these models of computation. Many of these models of computation benefit considerably from having access to causality information about the components. This paper augments the interfaces of such components to include such causality information. It shows how this causality information can be algebraically composed so that compositions of components acquire causality interfaces that are inferred from their components and the interconnections. We illustrate the use of these causality interfaces to statically analyze timed models and synchronous language compositions for causality loops and dataflow models for deadlock. We also show that that causality analysis only needs to be performed for one port in each directed communication cycle, and we give a conservative approximation technique for handling dynamically changing causality properties.

Electronic downloads

• http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2006/EECS-2006-148.html
• http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1347375.1347382. (Published Version)

• HTML

  Ye Zhou, Edward A. Lee. <a
  href="http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/pubs/317.html"
  ><i>Causality Interfaces for Actor
  Networks</i></a>, Technical report,  University
  of California, Berkeley, UCB/EECS-2006-148, November, 2006.

• Plain text

  Ye Zhou, Edward A. Lee. "Causality Interfaces for Actor
  Networks". Technical report,  University of California,
  Berkeley, UCB/EECS-2006-148, November, 2006.

• BibTeX

  @techreport{ZhouLee06_CausalityInterfacesForActorNetworks,
      author = {Ye Zhou and Edward A. Lee},
      title = {Causality Interfaces for Actor Networks},
      institution = {University of California, Berkeley},
      number = {UCB/EECS-2006-148},
      month = {November},
      year = {2006},
      abstract = {We consider concurrent models of computation where
                "actors" (components that are in charge of their
                own actions) communicate by exchanging messages.
                The interfaces of actors principally consist of
                "ports," which mediate the exchange of messages.
                Actor-oriented architectures contrast with and
                complement object-oriented models by emphasizing
                the exchange of data between concurrent components
                rather than transformation of state. Examples of
                such models of computation include the classical
                actor model, synchronous languages, dataflow
                models, process networks, and discrete-event
                models. Many experimental and production languages
                used to design embedded systems are actor oriented
                and based on one of these models of computation.
                Many of these models of computation benefit
                considerably from having access to causality
                information about the components. This paper
                augments the interfaces of such components to
                include such causality information. It shows how
                this causality information can be algebraically
                composed so that compositions of components
                acquire causality interfaces that are inferred
                from their components and the interconnections. We
                illustrate the use of these causality interfaces
                to statically analyze timed models and synchronous
                language compositions for causality loops and
                dataflow models for deadlock. We also show that
                that causality analysis only needs to be performed
                for one port in each directed communication cycle,
                and we give a conservative approximation technique
                for handling dynamically changing causality
                properties.},
      URL = {http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/pubs/317.html}
  }
  

Posted by Christopher Brooks on 7 Jun 2007.
Groups: ptolemy
For additional information, see the Publications FAQ or contact webmaster at chess eecs berkeley edu.