Lecture No 09

Abstract Machines
outline

 Abstract Machines Notation AMN

 Components of AMN
 Introducing
Abstract Machines
 Formal Specification of a
System
 Formal Specification describes the
 System behavior
 Operations of system
 Problem with formal specification is large amount of
detailed information which is required for accurate system
specification.
 A structured approach is required.
 The basic building block of a specification is abstract
machine.
 Large specification can be constructed from smaller ones.
 AMN (abstract Machine Notation ) is used.
Formal Specification of a
System
 Compositional structuring
 The combination of abstract machine is
also an abstract machine permitting
hierarchical specification.
Abstract Machines Notation (AMN)

 It is the specification of a system.

 Itcontains pieces of information, that
describes various aspects of the
specification.
 Specification must describe what the
component should do?(Operations,
Functions).
Abstract Machines Notation (AMN)

 Operations/Functions
Take inputs from the user
Supply outputs to the user.
Affect any change within the
component.
 Interface
Collection of operations by which
machine interacts with
environment.
Components of AMN
 It is required by the machine to maintain or
process information.
 For this a local state is required.
 State is mentioned by the local variables.
 State variables are listed under VARIABLES
heading.
 INVARIANT
 Their types and any other information are listed.
 The information which must be true of the state.
 For example type of variable must not be
changed during the execution.
Components of AMN contd..
 INITIALISATION
 Represents initial state
 Machine Name
 Machine must have a name ,so that other
machines can refer to it.
 The name is given under the heading MACHINE.
 Machine
 It has a name, internal state, and set of operations as
do objects.
 It may be considered as a black box with buttons on the
side corresponding to the operations, and a set of state
variables inside.
Components of AMN contd..

 Interaction must be through these

buttons.
Example of abstract machine
 Consider the example of ticket dispenser,
which is used in shop to order the queue.
On entry to the shop customer takes a
numbered ticket from the dispenser.
When a sales assistant is ready to serve, a
display indicates the number of the
customer who is to be served next.
Customers wait until it is their turn to be
served. The system is pictured in figure
A ticketing System
Ticket AMN

 The behavior of ticket system can be

represented using abstract machine.
 First of all name the machine as

MACHINE Ticket
 Ticket AMN
 VARIABLES
 To maintain the state of a system we define
variables, a variable should be of the type which is
suitable to express kind of value it can store.
 How the systems are understood rather than
implemented.
 In terms of values, sets, relations, sequences .
 A variable can be of the type N, natural numbers
set(0,1,2,…..).
 In the example we have two kind of tickets
 Ticket number being served
 Number of Next ticket to be dispensed.
 We can model with variables:
 next
 serve
Ticket AMN contd..
VARIABLES serve, next
 INVARIANT
 Provides information about the variables of the
machine
 It gives type of values of variable
 Restrictions on their possible values
 Relationships to each other
 Values of variables may change but it describes the
properties of the variables which must be true during
execution process.
 Type of variable is expressed as:
 Either an element of a set var TYPE
 Subset of a set var⊑ TYPE.
 Var=expression
Ticket AMN contd..
 At least one invariant clause should be defined
for each variable. Listed
 Next N
 Sreve N
 Further restrictions imposed by the operation
can also be added
 In Ticket machine number being served must be
less than the number of the ticket to be given
out.
 serve≤next

INVARIANT serve N ⋀ next N ⋀ serve ≤ next

 Ticket AMN contd..
 OPERATIONS
 It has following parts
 The name of the operation
 Input parameters
 Output parameters
 What the operation requires.(restrictions, conditions)
 What the operation modifies (variables that are modified)
 The effects or behavior of the operation(what the
operation does).
 In B, operation is described in a structured way
 Name, input, output parameters of an operation are
given by an operation header
 Outputs⃖ name(inputs)
 Where name refers to operation name, outputs is a list of
output and inputs is a list of inputs
Ticket AMN contd..
 Name must be given
 Inputs and outputs are optional parameters.
 Ticket machine will offer two operations
 One to serve customer and update the indicator board
 To provide the customer with the next ticket.
 Ssserve_next
⃖
 tt ⃖ take_ticket
Operation has precondition, It states that
what the operation requires in order to
behave correctly.
 Information of all input variables.
 Assumptions/state of the inputs
Ticket AMN contd..
 The requirements on the user to ensure that the
requirements are met whenever the operation is called.
 For example,
 the serve_next operation will be called when the sales
assistant has finished serving a customer.
 In this case serve must be less than next.
 If the shop is empty, then the value of serve will be the same
as next.
 Thus the precondition will be serve ≤next
 Body of the operation, describes what the operation
achieves.
 It must assign some value to one of the outputs.
 Output should be in terms of initial state and input values.
 Update the state of the variable
Ticket AMN contd..
 In case of serve_next,
 Serve should be incremented
 Output should be incremented to show state serve.
 In AMN assignment is written as x:=E (pronounced x
becomes E)
 Serve:= serve+1
 Output of this operation is assigned the same value
 Ss, serve:=serve+1,serve+1.
 Body shows the states, there is no intermediate
statement in the operation, therefore multiple
assignments must be shown in simultaneous assignment,
rather than a sequence of assignments one after the
other.
Ticket AMN contd..

 The complete specification of the operation

serve_next is as follows
 Ticket AMN contd..
 Type of the output variable ss is given by the
assignment, there is no need to declare its type.
 It is determined from the operation.
 After the execution of operation it must
guarantee that the invariant is still true on the
updated state.
 Then the operation is consistent.
 Is the operation serve_next consistent with the
inavriant?
 If the precondition is weaker then there will be
the chance of inconsistency with its variant.
Ticket AMN contd..
 Strengthening the precondition of serve_next to
serve<next imposes more constraints on the
user.
 Then the operation becomes consistent.
 Operation take_ticket
Ticket AMN contd..

INVARIANT serve N ⋀ next N ⋀ serve ≤ next and

Next<serv+20
INVARIANT serve N ⋀ next N ⋀ serve ≤ next

Is consistent with the invariant of the Ticket

machine?
Next is decrement
Serve is incremented
Operation is inconsistent when serve<=next,
As Serve>next
Ticket AMN contd..
 INITIALISATION
 Describes possible initial state of the
machine.
 All variables listed must be initialised.
 The Ticket machine should start with 0 on
the display board,
0 is the number of the first ticket to be
taken.
INITIALISATION serve, next:=0,0
 INITILISATION can only be consistent if
initial states are correct with respect to the
invariant.
complete Specification of
Ticket machine
27=26

Serve<=next
26<=26

26+1=27
Exercise
Summary

 Abstract Machine describes system

behavior.
 It has name, variables, invariant,
operations.
Questions