Open Transactions on Shared Memory

TL;DR

This paper introduces OCTM, a Haskell-like language with open transactions over shared memory, enabling processes to dynamically join transactions and coordinate through shared variables, with rollback capabilities affecting the environment.

Contribution

It presents OCTM, a novel language supporting open transactions that can dynamically join and leave, enhancing coordination in shared memory systems.

Findings

OCTM enables processes to join transactions at runtime.

Shared variables facilitate process coordination within transactions.

Rollback retracts effects on the environment, ensuring consistency.

Abstract

Transactional memory has arisen as a good way for solving many of the issues of lock-based programming. However, most implementations admit isolated transactions only, which are not adequate when we have to coordinate communicating processes. To this end, in this paper we present OCTM, an Haskell-like language with open transactions over shared transactional memory: processes can join transactions at runtime just by accessing to shared variables. Thus a transaction can co-operate with the environment through shared variables, but if it is rolled-back, also all its effects on the environment are retracted. For proving the expressive power of TCCS we give an implementation of TCCS, a CCS-like calculus with open transactions.