Reliable Synchronization Primitives for Java

Abstract

Java is an architecture-independent, object-oriented language designed to facilitate code-sharing across the Internet in general, via the Web in particular. Java is multithreaded, providing thread creation and synchronization constructs based on generalized monitors. Although these primitives are appropriate for many windowing applications, they are not necessarily well-suited for the larger class of multithreaded programs that occur as part of distributed systems. We demonstrate how the Java primitives, in conjunction with the object-oriented aspects of the language, can be used to implement a collection of other traditional synchronization paradigms. These paradigms are formally specified, their implementations are rigorously verified, and their use is illustrated with several examples.