Towards Verifying Parallel Algorithms and Programs using Coloured Petri Nets

Abstract. Coloured Petri nets have proved to be a useful formalism for modeling distributed algorithms, i.e., algorithms where nodes communicate via message passing. Here we describe an approach for modeling parallel algorithms and programs, i.e., algorithms and programs where processes communicate via shared memory. The model is verified for correctness, here to prove absence of mutual exclusion violations and to find dead- and live-locks. The approach can be used in a model-driven development approach, where code is generated from a model, in a modelextraction approach, where a model is extracted from running code, or using a combination of the two, supporting extracting a model from an abstract description and generation of correct implementation code. We illustrate our idea by applying the technique to a parallel implementation of explicit state-space exploration.