Abstract
We define and justify a natural sequential model of computation with a constant amount of read/write work space, despite unlimited (polynomial) access to read-only input and write-only output. The model is both deterministic, uniform, and sequential. The constant work space is modeled by a finite number of destructive read boolean variables, assignable by formulas over the canonical boolean operations. We then show that computation on this model is equivalent to expressibility in first-order logic, giving a duality between (read-once) constant-space serial algorithms and constant-time parallel algorithms.
Partially supported by NSF grant CCR-9403447, and the John C. Whitehead faculty research fund at Haverford College.
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Lindell, S. (1995). A constant-space sequential model of computation for first-order logic. In: Leivant, D. (eds) Logic and Computational Complexity. LCC 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 960. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60178-3_97
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60178-3_97
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