History
The concept of ASMs is due to Yuri Gurevich, who first proposed it in the mid-1980s as a way of improving on Turing's thesis that every algorithm is simulated by an appropriate Turing machine. He formulated the ASM Thesis: every algorithm, no matter how abstract, is step-for-step emulated by an appropriate ASM. In 2000, Gurevich axiomatized the notion of sequential algorithms, and proved the ASM thesis for them. Roughly stated, the axioms are as follows: states are structures, the state transition involves only a bounded part of the state, and everything is invariant under isomorphisms of structures. (Structures can be viewed as algebras, which explains the original name evolving algebras for ASMs.) The axiomatization and characterization of sequential algorithms have been extended to parallel and interactive algorithms.
In the 1990s, by a community effort, the ASM method has been developed, using ASMs for the formal specification and analysis (verification and validation) of computer hardware and software. Comprehensive ASM specifications of programming languages (including Prolog, C, and Java) and design languages (UML and SDL) have been developed. A detailed historical account can be found in the AsmBook (Chapter 9) or in this article.
A number of software tools for ASM execution and analysis are available.
Read more about this topic: Abstract State Machines
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