On the behaviours produced by instruction sequences under execution

Abstract

We study several aspects of the behaviours produced by instruction sequences under execution in the setting of the algebraic theory of processes known as ACP. We use ACP to describe the behaviours produced by instruction sequences under execution and to describe two protocols implementing these behaviours in the case where the processing of instructions takes place remotely. We also show that all finite-state behaviours considered in ACP can be produced by instruction sequences under execution.Comment: 36 pages, consolidates material from arXiv:0811.0436 [cs.PL], arXiv:0902.2859 [cs.PL], and arXiv:0905.2257 [cs.PL]; abstract and introduction rewritten, examples and proofs adde