Synchronous Languages

Lecture Notes
Real-Time and Embedded Systems Group
Wintersemester 2009

The slides+notes version is 4-up, includes notes, and uses a printer-friendly coloring scheme. To save paper, empty notes are eliminated, except when they are necessary to place subsequent (non-empty) notes below the slide to which they belong.
The slides version of the lectures is as shown in class, without animation (only one page per slide).
The animated version of the lectures is as shown in class, including animation (may be multiple pages per slide).
The bottom of this page contains further notes.

• Lecture 1, 28 October 2009: Introduction (posted 04 Nov 2009, 9:08 hrs )
• Lecture 2, 30 October 2009: Esterel I - Overview (posted 06 Nov 2009, 12:29 hrs )
• Lecture 3, 11 November 2009: Esterel II - Pragmatics (posted 13 Nov 2009, 11:58 hrs )
• Lecture 4, 13 November 2009: Esterel III - The Logical Semantics (posted 18 Nov 2009, 12:19 hrs )
• Lecture 5, 20 November 2009: Esterel IV - The Constructive Semantics (posted 18 Nov 2009, 12:32 hrs )

Lecture 1, 28 October 2009: Introduction (slides+notes, slides, animated, posted:04 Nov 2009, 9:08 hrs )

• About this Class
  • About this class and related classes
  • Practicalities
  • Literature
• Introduction to System Design
  • Embedded and reactive systems
  • Advanced design languages

Lecture 2, 30 October 2009: Esterel I - Overview (slides+notes, slides, animated, posted:06 Nov 2009, 12:29 hrs )

• Main Concepts
  • Introduction
  • Signals and Synchrony
  • The multiform notion of time
• A Tour through Esterel
  • The ABRO Example
  • The SPEED Example, Signals and Variables
  • Weak and Strong Abortion
  • Modules
• Further Esterel Statements
  • Further Basic Statements
  • Process Suspension
  • Variants of Discussed Statements, Trap vs. Abort
  • Host Language
• The Kernel Language
• To Go Further
  • G'erard Berry, The Foundations of Esterel, Proof, Language and Interaction: Essays in Honour of Robin Milner, G. Plotkin, C. Stirling and M. Tofte, editors, MIT Press, Foundations of Computing Series, 2000, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.53.6221
  • G'erard Berry, The Esterel v5 Language Primer, Version v5_91, 2000 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.15.8212

Lecture 3, 11 November 2009: Esterel II - Pragmatics (slides+notes, slides, animated, posted:13 Nov 2009, 11:58 hrs )

• Examples
  • People Counter Example
  • Vending Machine Example
  • Tail Lights Example
  • Traffic-Light Controller Example
• Interfacing with the Environment
  • Available Alternatives
  • Handling Inconsistent Outputs
  • Events vs. State

Lecture 4, 13 November 2009: Esterel III - The Logical Semantics (slides+notes, slides, animated, posted:18 Nov 2009, 12:19 hrs )

• Logical Correctness
  • Causality issues
  • The logical coherence law
  • Logical reactivity and determinism
  • Instantaneous Feedback
• The Logical Behavioral Semantics
  • Notation and Definitions
  • The Basic Broadcasting Calculus
  • Transition Rules
  • Reactivity and Determinism
• To Go Further
  • Gérard Berry, The Constructive Semantics of Pure Esterel, Draft book, version 3, July 2, 1999, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.30.2136
  • Gérard Berry, Preemption in Concurrent Systems, In Proceedings FSTTCS 93, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 761, pages 72-93, Springer-Verlag, 1993,http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.42.1557

Lecture 5, 20 November 2009: Esterel IV - The Constructive Semantics (slides+notes, slides, animated, posted:18 Nov 2009, 12:32 hrs )

• The Constructive Semantics
  • External Justification vs. Self-Justification
  • The Constructive Behavioral Semantics
  • The Constructive Operational Semantics
• To Go Further
  • Albert Benveniste, Paul Caspi, Stephen A. Edwards, Nicolas Halbwachs, Paul Le Guernic, Robert De Simone, The synchronous languages 12 years later, Proceedings of the IEEE, Jan. 2003 vol. 91, issue 1, pages 64-83, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.96.1117

Notes:

• The notes here are typically posted right before or after class. If you are curious about the whole curriculum of this class, you can have a look at the lecture notes from the last time this class was held.
• The PDF-files are generated for Acrobat 5.0. If you have problems viewing the PDF-files and are using an older version of the Acrobat Reader, you may want to download the current version. Also feel free to contact the lecturer/the assistant. And there is always the option of logging on to one of the department's workstations.
• Documents that are in the directory http://www.informatik.uni-kiel.de/rtsys/teaching/ws09/v-synch/papers can only be accessed from machines within the network of the institute. If you want to access them remotely, you can do so for example via ssh.
• The lecture notes are generated with LaTeX and the beamer class. The process of generating the various PDFs and the following HTML overview and of uploading everything to the web server is largely automated - which is convenient, but makes it easy to overlook things that have gone wrong in the process. Hence, if something appears to have gone wrong, please drop a note to Reinhard v. Hanxleden.