Algorithmic Description of Processes

Algorithmic Description of Processes 

a description of processes in the language of mathematical symbols for the purpose of obtaining an algorithm that will reflect the elementary acts of a process, their succession, and their interconnection. Algorithms obtained by this process are usually intended for use in electronic computers.

The construction of algorithms describing real processes is usually associated with two problems: finding effective systems of data processing and mathematically investigating the processes involved in the operation of large-scale systems. In problems of the first type, the construction of a control algorithm requires the attachment to the algorithm describing the functional process of the system a second algorithm for determining the optimal solution or the optimal values of control parameters. In problems of the second type, an algorithmic description of the operation of a large-scale system makes it possible to make quantitative and qualitative studies associated with estimating its basic properties—efficiency, reliability, and the like.

In securing the algorithmic description of a process, the process is broken down into elementary acts (subprocesses) that can be described mathematically, beginning with known mathematical schemes of the algebra of logic, finite automatons, random processes, mass-service theory, and so forth. Relationships describing the elementary acts of the process are combined into a system, supplemented with a description of their interconnections, and presented in the form of an algorithm.

For the purpose of programming and realization on electronic computers, operations and procedures that are elements of the algorithmic description of the process are conveniently recorded in a programming language, from which, with the help of translator programs, the algorithm is automatically translated to the language of commands (operations) of a specific electronic computer. Here (in the general case) several computer operations may correspond to a particular operation of the algorithm.

REFERENCES

Glushkov, V. M. Sintez tsifrovykh avtomatov, Moscow, 1962.
Buslenko, N. P. Matematicheskoe modelirovanie proizvodstvennykh protsessov na tsifrovykh vychislitel’nykh mashinakh. Moscow, 1964.
Algoritmizatsiia proizvodstvennykh protsessov, issue 1. Kiev, 1966. (Seminar reports.)

N. P. BUSLENKO