The translation of processes into circuits

A process is a pair 〈 A, X 〉 in which A is a set of symbols (the alphabet) and X is a non-empty prefix-closed subset of A* (the trace set). A process may be viewed as the specification of a mechanism: -symbols correspond to events that may occur. -traces correspond to sequences of events that may be observed when the mechanism is in operation.In this paper we show how for a certain class of processes circuits can be derived that behave as prescribed by these processes. The circuits are delay-insensitive in the sense that their behaviour does not depend on delays in wires and switching elements.Events may be initiated by a mechanism (active events) or by the environment of the mechanism (passive events). It is shown how active events can be transformed into passive events, and vice versa.We show how the composition of processes corresponds to the composition of circuits