FIFO Buffers in tie Sauce

International audienceThis paper introduces a new semantics for FIFO buffers (more usually called channels) in a parallel programming language, B(PN)². This semantics is given in terms of M-nets, which form an algebra of labelled high-level Petri nets. The proposed approach makes usage of asynchronous link operator, newly introduced in the algebra of M-nets, and repairs some drawbacks of the previous M-net semantics. Channels are now fully expressible within the algebra (it was not the case), they are significantly smaller (in number of places), and they offer several other advantages

Qualitative modelling and analysis of regulations in multi-cellular systems using Petri nets and topological collections

In this paper, we aim at modelling and analyzing the regulation processes in multi-cellular biological systems, in particular tissues. The modelling framework is based on interconnected logical regulatory networks a la Rene Thomas equipped with information about their spatial relationships. The semantics of such models is expressed through colored Petri nets to implement regulation rules, combined with topological collections to implement the spatial information. Some constraints are put on the the representation of spatial information in order to preserve the possibility of an enumerative and exhaustive state space exploration. This paper presents the modelling framework, its semantics, as well as a prototype implementation that allowed preliminary experimentation on some applications.Comment: In Proceedings MeCBIC 2010, arXiv:1011.005

State Space Reduction for Dynamic Process Creation

Automated verification of dynamic multi-threaded computing systems is severely affected by problems relating to dynamic process creation. In this paper, we describe an abstraction technique aimed at generating reduced state space representations for such systems. To make the new technique applicable to a wide range of different system models, we express it in terms of general labelled transition systems. At the heart of our technique is an equivalence relation on system states based on a suitable isomorphism between their component parts and relationships between component process identifiers. In addition, the equivalence takes into account new process identifiers which can be derived from those present in the states being compared, in effect performing a limited lookahead. Applying state space reduction based on such a state equivalence may produce a finite representation of an infinite state system while still allowing to validate essential behavioural properties, e.g., freedom from deadlocks. We evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method through extensive experiments. The results clearly demonstrate that the new state space reduction technique can be implemented in an efficient way. We also describe how the new state equivalence relation can be implemented for a class of high-level Petri nets supporting dynamic thread creation

A Concurrent Semantics of Static Exceptions in a Parallel Programming Language

This paper aims at introducing a mechanism of exceptions in a parallel programming language, giving them a formal concurrent semantics in terms of preemptible and composable high-level Petri nets