A-maze-ing Esterel

This paper shows that the kernel fragment of Esterel corresponding to combinational circuits admits a natural game–theoretic interpretation. Technically, combinational Esterel programs are mapped into finite two–player games in such a way that the standard must– and cannot–analysis of signal statuses is reflected in the computation of winning strategies. The novel game–theoretic approach complements the existing behavioral, operational, circuit–based, and model–theoretic accounts of Esterel’s semantics and offers a new didactic perspective for familiarizing students and engineers with this intricate constructive semantics.