The Origins and the Development of the ASM Method for High Level System Design and Analysis

Egon Börger (Università di Pisa, Italy)

Abstract: The research belonging to the Abstract State Machines approach to system design and analysis is surveyed and documented in an annotated ASM bibliography. The survey covers the period from 1984, when the idea for the concept of ASMs (under the name dynamic or evolving algebras or structures) appears for the first time in a foundational context, to the year 2001 where a mathematically well-founded, practical system development method based upon the notion of ASMs is in place and ready to be industrially deployed. Some lessons for the future of ASMs are drawn.

Keywords: abstract state machines, models of computation, specification methods, system analysis, system design

Categories: C.1, C.3, D.1, D.2, D.3, F.1.1, F.1.2, F.3.1, F.3.2, F.4.2, F.4.3, G.0, H.1, I.6