Speculative linearizability
Year: 2012
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Linearizability is a key design methodology for reasoning about implementations of concurrent abstract data types in both shared memory and message passing systems. It provides the illusion that operations execute sequentially and fault-free, despite the asynchrony and faults inherent to a concurrent system, especially a distributed one. A key property of linearizability is inter-object composability: a system composed of linearizable objects is itself linearizable. However, devising linearizable objects is very difficult, requiring complex algorithms to work correctly under general circumstances, and often resulting in bad average-case behavior. Concurrent algorithm designers therefore resort to speculation: optimizing algorithms to handle common scenarios more efficiently. The outcome are even more complex protocols, for which it is no longer tractable to prove their correctness.
Authors: Rachid Guerraoui, Viktor Kuncak, Giuliano Losa
Institution: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2293100135