The Power of the Queue

Abstract

Queues, stacks (pushdown stores), and tapes are storage models which have direct applications in compiler design and the general desig of algorithms. Whereas stacks (pushdown store or last-in-first-out storage) have been thoroughly investigated and are well understood, this is much less the case for queues (first-in-first-out storage). This paper contains a comprehensive study comparing queues to stacks and tapes. We address off-line machines with a one-way input, both deterministic and nondeterministic. The techniques relly on algorithmic information theory (Kolmogorov Complexity).