Towards a theory of actor computation

Gul Agha, Ian A. Mason, Scott Smith, Carolyn Talcott

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

In this paper we present preliminary results of a rigorous development of the actor model of computation. We present an actor language which is an extension of a simple functional language, and provide a precise operational semantics for this extension. Our actor systems are open distributed systems, meaning we explicitly take into account the interface with external components in the specification of an actor system. We define and study various notions of equivalence on actor expressions and systems. We show that the usual tripartite family of testing equivalence relations collapses to two in the presence of fairness. We define a notion of operational bisimulation as a tool for establishing equivalence under fairness assumptions, and illustrate its use.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCONCUR 1992 - 3rd International Conference on Concurrency Theory, Proceedings
EditorsW. Rance Cleaveland
PublisherSpringer
Pages565-579
Number of pages15
ISBN (Print)9783540558224
DOIs
StatePublished - 1992
Event3rd International Conference on Concurrency Theory, CONCUR 1992 - Stony Brook, United States
Duration: Aug 24 1992Aug 27 1992

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume630 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Other

Other3rd International Conference on Concurrency Theory, CONCUR 1992
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityStony Brook
Period8/24/928/27/92

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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