SPECIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ATOMIC DATA TYPES

  • Authors:
  • W. E. Weihl

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • SPECIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ATOMIC DATA TYPES
  • Year:
  • 1984

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Abstract

Maintaining the consistency of long-lived, on-line data is a difficult task, particularly in a distributed system. This dissertation focuses on atomicity as a fundamental organizational concept for such systems. It explores an approach in which atomicity is ensured by the data objects shared by concurrent activities; such objects are called atomic objects, and data types whose objects are atomic are called atomic types. By using information about the behavior of the shared objects, greater concurrency among activities can be permitted. In addition, by encapsulating the synchronization and recovery needed to support atomicity in the implementation of shared objects, modularity can be enhanced. This dissertation addresses three fundamental questions: (1) What is an atomic type? (2) How can an atomic type be specified? and (3) How can an atomic type be implemented?