Calculi for Synchrony and Asynchrony

A calculus for distributed computation is studied, based upon four combinators. A central idea is an Abelian group of actions which models the interfaces between components of a distributed computing agent. Using a notion of bisimulation, congruence relations are defined over computing agents, and thence an algebraic theory is derived. The calculus models both synchronous and asynchronous computation. In particular, it is shown that the author's Calculus of Communicating Systems (1980), which is an asynchronous model, is derivable from the calculus presented here.