Abstract
In previous lectures, I presented several types of time and communication models for circuits and associated software: asynchronous models with no time control, vibratory models where computation and communication take a predictable time, synchronous models where communication is assumed to be conceptually instantaneous, continuous-time or discrete-time models, etc. These models have very different characteristics and fields of application: large networks and general distributed algorithms for asynchronous models, circuits, embedded systems and cyber-physical systems for vibratory and synchronous models. These models have very different characteristics and fields of application: large networks and general distributed algorithms for asynchronous models; circuits, embedded systems and cyber-physical systems for vibratory and synchronous models; simulation of physical systems for continuous-time models, for example. We have also seen that modern applications often require a conjunction of models: circuits that are globally asynchronous but locally synchronous (GALS), orchestration of asynchronous Web activities by synchronous programs (Hop / HipHop), and so on.
