Analysing a pi-calculus Specification of a Cache-Coherence Protocol

We specify a cache coherence protocol for cache-only shared memory multiprocessor architectures using the ß-calculus. The analysis of the specification of the protocol is discussed, with emphasis on the use of the modal ¯-calculus to express correctness properties. The protocol specification is expressed using recursion inside parallel composition and thus it does not adhere to the syntactical requirements for finite control. We argue that the specification still belongs to a class of ß-calculus processes for which model checking and bisimilarity checking is decidable. The relaxation of the syntactical requirement for finite control permits more natural specifications to be made. We expect that specifications which are naturally expressed using recursion inside parallel compositions but still permit decidable analyses are common in practise. The work reported in this paper was supported by the Swedish Board for Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK) as part of the ESPRIT BRA p..