The design and construction of deadlock-free concurrent systems

The Design and Construction of Deadlock-Free Concurrent Systems Jeremy Martin It is a difficult task to produce software which is guaranteed never to fail, but it is a vital goal for which to strive in many real-life situations. The problem is especially complex in the field of parallel programming, where there are extra things that can go wrong. A particularly serious problem is deadlock. Here we consider how to construct systems which are guaranteed deadlock-free by design. Design rules, old and new, which eliminate deadlock are catalogued, and their theoretical foundation illuminated. Then the development of a software engineering tool is described which proves deadlock-freedom by verifying adherence to these methods. Use of this tool is illustrated with several case studies. The thesis concludes with a discussion of related issues of parallel program reliability.