Modelling Distributed Systems

Distributed systems are multiprocessor information processing systems which do not rely on the central shared memory for communication. The importance of distributed systems has been growing with the advent of "computer networks" of a wide spectrum: networks of geographically distributed computers at one end, and tightly coupled systems built with a large number of inexpensive physical processors at the other end. Both kinds of distributed system are made available by the rapid progress in the technology of large-scale integrated circuits. Yet little has been done in the research on semantics and programming methodologies for distributed information processing systems. Our main research goal is to understand and describe the behaviour of such distributed systems in seeking the maximum benefit of employing multiprocessor computation schemata. The contribution of such research to Artificial Intelligence is manifold. We advocate an approach to modelling intelligence in terms of cooperation and communication among knowledge-based problem-solving experts.