Timed automata and register automata are well-known models of computation
over timed and data words respectively. The former has clocks that allow to
test the lapse of time between two events, whilst the latter includes registers
that can store data values for later comparison. Although these two models
behave in appearance differently, several decision problems have the same
(un)decidability and complexity results for both models. As a prominent
example, emptiness is decidable for alternating automata with one clock or
register, both with non-primitive recursive complexity. This is not by chance.
This work confirms that there is indeed a tight relationship between the two
models. We show that a run of a timed automaton can be simulated by a register
automaton, and conversely that a run of a register automaton can be simulated
by a timed automaton. Our results allow to transfer complexity and decidability
results back and forth between these two kinds of models. We justify the
usefulness of these reductions by obtaining new results on register automata.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS'10, arXiv:1011.601
