Summary:

This book addresses the need for developing organizing principles for understanding, assessing, and comparing different models of computation. First, Author Axel Jantsch identifies the representation of time as the essential feature for distinguishing these models. Given this conceptual framework, he then presents a single formalism for representing very different models, allowing them to be easily compared. As a result, designers, students, and researchers are able to identify the role and the features of the right model of computation for the task at hand.

Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Behavior and Concurrency
3. The Untimed Model of Computation
4. The Synchronous Model of Computation
5. The Timed Model of Computation
6. MoC Interfaces
7. Tightly Coupled Process Networks
8. Nondeterminism and Probability
9. Applications
10. Concluding Remarks