SIAM Journal of Computing, to appear. D. Dolev and N. Shavit. Bounded concurrent time-stamp systems are constructible . SIAM Journal of Computing, to appear. The ability to count without bound is a useful tool in distributed computing.
Several problems yield simple solutions when unbounded registers are permitted.
Bounded concurrent time stamps systems are constructible . 21st ACM Symp. on Theory of Computing. They developed an elegant theory of sequential time stamp systems, in which operations are totally ordered, as well as a system with a limited amount of concurrency. Such a system can be applied directly to solve the problem of implementing a multi user variable from multi reader variables. D. Dolev and N. Shavit, Bounded Concurrent Time-Stamp Systems Are Constructible , Proc.