Blending Object-Z and Timed CSP: an introduction to TCOZ

Abstract

Object-Z is an extension to the Z language designed to facilitate specification in an object-oriented style. It is an excellent tool for modeling data and algorithms, but its object semantics are single threaded and operations are atomic. Therefore, it is difficult to use Object-Z to capture the behaviour of concurrent real-time reactive systems. On the other hand, Timed CSP is good at modeling real-time concurrent behaviour, but has little support for modeling the state of a complex system. This paper introduces a blending of Object-Z and Timed CSP, known as TCOZ. The blended notation is particularly suited for specifying complex systems whose components have their own thread of control.