The Generic Model of Computation

Over the past two decades, Yuri Gurevich and his colleagues have formulated axiomatic foundations for the notion of algorithm, be it classical, interactive, or parallel, and formalized them in the new generic framework of abstract state machines. This approach has recently been extended to suggest a formalization of the notion of effective computation over arbitrary countable domains. The central notions are summarized herein.Comment: In Proceedings DCM 2011, arXiv:1207.682

Distributed Abstract State Machines and their Expressive Power

Gurevich’s sequential Abstract State Machines (ASMs) are taken as a basis for the construction of distributed ASMs as sets of sequential ASMs. A theorem on the expressive power of distributed ASMs is proven in analogy to Gurevich’s classical theorem on the expressive power of sequential ASMs.

Distributed Abstract State Machines Status Report of a Doctoral Thesis

Abstract. In 1985, Gurevich introduced Abstract State Machines (ASMs) as a computational model more powerful and universal than classical computational models. Since then ASMs have been applied successfully both in theory and practice: On the theoretical side, ASMs evolved to a general basis for the study of different classes of algorithms and their expressive power. On the practical side, ASMs have been extended to a full-fledged design methodology, applied successfully in industry for the specification and analysis of real-world systems. In my doctoral thesis I examine the class of distributed ASMs and study their expressive power. I also intend to develop basic notions of refinement and composition for distributed ASMs.