ACTORS: A Model of Concurrent Computation in Distributed Systems
📜 Abstract
The paper proposes a new model of computation to deal with concurrent computation in distributed systems which challenges the traditional von Neumann model. The proposed model is called ACTORS. An actor is a computational agent which has a mail address and can perform the following: send messages to other actors, create new actors, and designate the behavior to be used for the next message it receives. The ACTORS model is intended to be a modular system for aiding the development, testing, and debugging of large-scale distributed systems. The model is particularly applicable to systems that require a high degree of concurrent operations.
✨ Summary
The ACTORS model, introduced by Carl Hewitt, Peter Bishop, and Richard Steiger in 1973, represents a foundational paradigm in the field of concurrent computation, offering a significant departure from the traditional von Neumann architecture. This model focuses on computation as a series of independent ‘actors’ that interact via asynchronous message-passing, enabling highly scalable and parallel processing, ideal for distributed systems. Over time, the actor model has profoundly influenced the development of concurrent and distributed computing, being recognized as a precursor to modern concepts in programming languages and frameworks like Erlang, Scala’s Akka, and Microsoft’s Orleans, which exploit actor-like models for efficient, scalable applications (source 1, source 2, source 3). The concepts proposed in this paper continue to be influential in the design and implementation of systems that require robust concurrency and distributed processing capabilities.