Typed Broadcast Automata for Modeling Massively Parallel Processing

The Broadcast Automata based System is a model of massively parallel computation, defined for prototyping of scientific applications. It consists of a collection of identical entities, modelled as finite state automata and able to operate in parallel, a global synchroniser providing co-ordination between the automata and a broadcast communication system, to which each automaton is connected, granting information exchange among the automata. The model represents a conceptual tool to analyse and reason about problems that are intrinsically parallel or distributed, as it naturally matches the parallelism of their solutions, and to express the highest level of parallelism in problems whose solutions are usually conceived in sequential terms. The paper illustrates some extensions to this model, concerning the concept of type and of multiple state transitions of a broadcast automaton. The application of the extended model to a case study dealing with symbolic processing is shown.