Deriving Eecient Cache Coherence Protocols through Reenement ?

We address the problem of developing eecient cache coherence protocols implementing distributed shared memory (DSM) using message passing. A serious drawback of traditional approaches to this problem is that designers are required to state the desired coherence protocol at the level of asynchronous message interactions. We propose a method in which designers express the desired protocol at a high-level using rendezvous communication. These descriptions are much easier to understand and computationally more eecient to verify than asynchronous protocols due to their small state spaces. The rendezvous protocol can also be synthesized into eecient asynchronous protocols. We present our protocol reenement procedure, prove its soundness, and provide examples of its eeciency.