The complexity of verifying memory coherence and consistency

The problem of testing shared memories for memory coherence and consistency is studied. First, it is proved that detecting violations of coherence in an execution is NP-complete, and it remains NP-complete for a number of restricted instances. This result leads to a proof that all known consistency...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems Vol. 16; no. 7; pp. 663 - 671
Main Authors: Cantin, J.F., Lipasti, M.H., Smith, J.E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2005
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects:
Algorithm design and analysis
Circuit testing
Coherence
design styles
error-checking
Fault tolerance
Hardware
memory structures
Multiprocessing systems
nonnumerical algorithms and problems
Processor scheduling
reliability
Reliability theory
Scheduling algorithm
sequencing and scheduling
shared memory
System testing
testing
theory of computation
ISSN:1045-9219, 1558-2183
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The problem of testing shared memories for memory coherence and consistency is studied. First, it is proved that detecting violations of coherence in an execution is NP-complete, and it remains NP-complete for a number of restricted instances. This result leads to a proof that all known consistency models are NP-hard to verify. The complexity of verifying consistency models is not a mere consequence of coherence, and verifying sequential consistency remains NP-complete even after coherence has been verified.
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ISSN:1045-9219
1558-2183
DOI:10.1109/TPDS.2005.86