TOWARDS A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF PROCESSING SYSTEMS

Abstract

The paper presents a unified term algebra for the complete description of every network of cooperating processing units no matter whether they are clocked or self-timed. The description is called complete because it covers the topology, the functions and the time behaviour of the network. Even storage can explicitly be described. A processing unit may be as small as a hardware gate or as large as any computer. The main purpose of the paper is a concise introduction of the basic elements, the operators, the sorts and the signature of the term algebra. Its expressive power is then demonstrated by the complete specification of a D-flipflop.