Leslie Lamport — The Paxos algorithm or how to win a Turing Award. Part 1.

How to think about concurrent systems mathematically is explained using the Paxos consensus algorithm as an example. First, the problem to be solved is precisely specified. Then, a “shared memory“ voting algorithm is specified and shown to implement the problem specification. Finally, the Paxos algorithm is specified and shown to implement the voting algorithm. How mathematical thinking is used in industry is then briefly discussed.