On the behaviours produced by instruction sequences under execution

TL;DR

This paper explores the behaviors generated by instruction sequences during execution using algebraic process theory, demonstrating their ability to produce all finite-state behaviors and describing remote execution protocols.

Contribution

It introduces an algebraic framework for analyzing instruction sequence behaviors and shows their equivalence to all finite-state behaviors in ACP.

Findings

All finite-state behaviors can be produced by instruction sequences.

Protocols for remote instruction processing are described.

ACP effectively models instruction sequence behaviors.

Abstract

We study several aspects of the behaviours produced by instruction sequences under execution in the setting of the algebraic theory of processes known as ACP. We use ACP to describe the behaviours produced by instruction sequences under execution and to describe two protocols implementing these behaviours in the case where the processing of instructions takes place remotely. We also show that all finite-state behaviours considered in ACP can be produced by instruction sequences under execution.