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Abstract State Machines for the Classroom

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Logics of Specification Languages

Abstract

Abstract State Machines (hencefort referred to as just ASM) were introduced as “a computation model that is more powerful and more universal than standard computation models” by Yuri Gurevich in 1985.

Here we provide some intuitive and motivating arguments, and characteristic examples for (the elementary version of) ASM. The intuition of ASM as a formal framework for “pseudocode” algorithms is highlighted. Generalizing variants of the fundamental “sequential small-step” version of ASM are also considered.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik, Math.-Nat. Fakultät II, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, DE 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Wolfgang Reisig

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  1. Wolfgang Reisig
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Informatics and Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

    Dines Bjørner

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, CO4 3SQ, Colchester, UK

    Martin C. Henson

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Reisig, W. (2008). Abstract State Machines for the Classroom. In: Bjørner, D., Henson, M.C. (eds) Logics of Specification Languages. Monographs in Theoretical Computer Science. An EATCS Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74107-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74107-7_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-74106-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-74107-7

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