Execution architectures for program algebra

✍ Scribed by Jan A. Bergstra; Alban Ponse

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 287 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1570-8683
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jal.2005.10.013

✦ Synopsis

We investigate the notion of an execution architecture in the setting of the program algebra PGA, and distinguish two sorts of these: analytic architectures, designed for the purpose of explanation and provided with a process-algebraic, compositional semantics, and synthetic architectures, focusing on how a program may be a physical part of an execution architecture. Then we discuss in detail the Turing machine, a well-known example of an analytic architecture. The logical core of the halting problemthe inability to forecast termination behavior of programs-leads us to a few approaches and examples on related issues: forecasters and rational agents. In particular, we consider architectures suitable to run a Newcomb Paradox system and the Prisoner's Dilemma.