Randomized Wait-Free Concurrent Objects (Extended Abstract)

d abstract) Maurice Herlihy Digital Equipment Corporation Cambridge Research Laboratory One Kendall Square Cambridge MA, 02139 Digital Equipment Corporation Cambridge Research Lab CRL 91/5 June 3, 1991 A concurrent object is a data structure shared by concurrent processes. A wait-free implementationof a concurrent object guarantees that every operation completes in a nite number of steps, regardless of how processes interleave. It is known, however, that if concurrent processes communicate only by applying read and write operations to a shared memory, then it is impossible to construct wait-free implementations of many simple and useful data objects. In this paper we show how to construct randomized wait-free implementations of long-lived concurrent objects, implementations that guarantee that every operation completes in a nite expected number of steps, even against a powerful adversary. This paper will appear in the Tenth Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1991
• Where: PODC
• Authors: Maurice Herlihy
• Keywords: Concurrent Objects, Concurrent Processes, Distributed And Parallel Computing, Equipment Corporation Cambridge, PODC 1991