Nondeterminism and the Correctness of Parallel Programs

Abstract

Abstract : This paper presents the weakest preconditions which describe weak correctness, blocking, deadlock, and starvation for nondeterministic programs. A procedure for converting parallel programs to nondeterministic programs is described, and the correctness of various example parallel programs is treated in this manner. Among these are a busy-wait mutual exclusion scheme, and the problem of the Five Dining Philosophers.