Simulating Synchronous Processors

Jennifer L. Welch

In this paper we show how a distributed system with synchronous processors and asynchronous message delays can be simulated by a system with both asynchronous processors and asynchronous message delays in the presence of various types of processor faults. Consequently, the result of Fischer, Lynch and Paterson (1985), that no consensus protocol for asynchronous processors and communication can tolerate one failstop fault, implies a result of Dolev, Dwork and Stockmeyer (1987), that no consensus protocol for synchronous processors and asynchronous communication can tolerate one failstop fault.