Communicating Sequential Process (CSP)
Theory of Automata and Programming
Introduction
CSP is a formal language for describing patterns of
interaction in concurrent systems.[1] It is a member of
the family of mathematical theories of concurrency
known as process algebras, or process calculi, based on
message passing via channels. It was developed at the
University of Oxford during the 1980s, principally by C.
A. R. Hoare. [1]. CSP has been practically applied in
industry as a tool for specifying and verifying the
concurrent aspects of a variety of different systems, such
as the T9000 Transputer,[2] as well as a secure
ecommerce system.
Informal Definition
CSP allows the description of systems in terms of
component processes that operate independently, and
interact with each other solely through message-passing
communication.
Primitives
Primitive
Events
process
Algebraic
Operators
Prefix Deterministic Non-Deterministic
Choice Choice
Prof. Dr. ABDULLAH BIN MOHD. ZIN
Example Formal Description
When describing a simple vending machine, which sells Let e be an event, and x be a set of events. Then
chocolates, we may be interested in the events coin, the basic syntax of CSP can be defined as:
representing insertion of a coin into the machine, and choc,
representing the appearance of a chocolate. A machine
which demands payment before offering a chocolate can
be written as:
A person who might choose to use a coin or card to make
payments could be modelled as:
These two processes can be put in parallel, so that they can
interact with each other. Thus,
Whereas if synchronization was only required on “coin”,
we would obtain
Conclusion
CSP message-passing fundamentally involves a
If we abstract this latter composite process by hiding the rendezvous between the processes involved in
“coin” and “card” events, i.e. sending and receiving the message. The
relationships between different processes, and the
This is a process which either offers a “choc” event and way each process communicates with its
environment, are described using various process
then stops, or just stops.
algebraic operators. Using this algebraic approach,
quite complex process descriptions can be easily
constructed from a few primitive elements. CSP
uses explicit channels for message passing.
References
Interleaving Interface 1. Hoare, C. A. R. (1978). "Communicating sequential
Hiding processes". Communications of the ACM 21 (8): 666–67.
parallel 2. Barrett, G. (1995). "Model checking in practice: The T9000
Virtual Channel Processor". IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering 21 (2): 69–78.
Dr. BAHARI BIN IDRUS QASEM ABDULLAH QASEM AL-TASHI
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