Pivotal synchronization languages: A framework for alignments

Abstract

We propose pivotal synchronization languages (PSLs) that represent alignments of parallel processes. PSLs are closely related to synchronization languages [10], but the strings in PSLs are partitioned into sequences of pivots. In the partitioned representation, each pivot gathers and aligns simultaneous process boundaries (starts and terminations). The paper demonstrates that PSLs (and new join operators) provide a unified framework for implementing some independent formalisms. In particular, we show that at least two existing formalisms, generalized synchronization expressions [10] and interleave-disjunction-lock expressions [8] have PSL-based counterparts. Furthermore, we sketch tentatively a new formalism that adapts the ideas of the operator of generalized restriction [11] to PSLs. All this suggests that the union of these formalisms might be implementable.