Many people have indicated that some of the early classic papers on Petri nets are difficult to obtain. In the United States much research is supported by grants and contracts from the U.S. government and so copies of these research reports are filed with the government. The National Technical Information Service (Department of Commerce) provides access to most of these reports. To get a copy of a particular report, you must know its accession number. Accession numbers are determined by searching the semi-monthly Government Reports Announcements which print the accession number, source, and abstract. I have compiled the following list of Petri net reports which are on file with NTIS. The accession number is the AD-xxx xxx or PB-xxx xxx number.

To get a copy of one of these reports, write first to obtain a price quote (giving the accession number of the report or reports which you want) and a copy of Folder PR-360-4. Copies are available in paper (generally $10.00 to $25.00) and microfiche (around $3.50 to $5.00). Prices vary according to the number of pages. The address to write is:

		National Technical Information Service
		5285 Port Royal Road
		Springfield, Virginia  22161
		U.S.A.

A source of any research which is published as a Ph.D. dissertation is University Microfilms. Almost all Ph.D. dissertations in the U.S. and Canada are available from them. Prices are similar to those of NTIS for paper copy, but seem to be higher for microfiche. They have two addresses:

    University Microfilms	  University Microfilms International
    P. O. Box 1764		  Tylers Green
    Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106	  High Wycombe
    U.S.A.			  Buckinghamshire, England HP10 8HR

A final alternative: If there was sufficient interest, we might be able to interest a publisher (like Springer-Verlag) in publishing a collection of important (historical) Petri net papers. The major question of course is: What are the major Petri net papers? One is obvious: Petri's thesis. What are the others? If you would like to send me your suggestions, mail them to:

		James L. Peterson
		Department of Computer Sciences
		University of Texas
		Austin, Texas  78712

1. The following postulates are assumed: (a) there exists an upper bound on the speed of signals; (b) there exists an upper bound on the density with which information can be stored.
   
   
2. Automata of fixed, finite size can recognize, at best, only iteratively defined classes of input sequences.
   
   
3. Recursively defined classes of input sequences that cannot be defined iteratively can be recognized only by automata of unbounded size.
   
   
4. In order for an automaton to solve a (soluble) recursive problem, the possiblity must be granted that it can be extended unboundedly in whatever way might be required.
   
   
5. Automata (as actual hardware) formulated in accordance with automata theory will, after a finite number of extensions, conflict with at least one of the postulates.

1. Description of data structures with precision and conciseness for communication between designers, implementers, and users;
   
   
2. Description of data structures leading to implementation insights;
   
   
3. Description of data structures leading to evaluations of the form: Given a particular computing system and a given class of storage and retrieval problems, how suitable is a described structure as a means of accomplishing problem solutions on the proposed equipment.

1. Communication mechanics (Parts, Values, Motion and propagation, The motion of parts and values);
   
   
2. Nets, time and space (Cells and boundaries, Full and empty space and time, One-directional motion).

1. Marked directed graphs;
   
   
2. Integer programming theorems for oriented graphoids;
   
   
3. The path graphoid of a graph and its applications to network theory;
   
   
4. The vertex graphoid of a bipartite graph and a sufficient condition for total unimodularity;
   
   
5. Deadlocks in Petri nets;
   
   
6. A sufficient condition for a matrix to be totally unimodular.

1. Role/activity models and Petri nets;
   
   
2. Role-activity nets in the analysis of a financial information system;
   
   
3. The connection of parts to one another in system contexts;
   
   
4. Definitions pertaining to Petri nets, states and events and behavior;
   
   
5. Calculating logical and probabilistic dependencies in a class of net models;
   
   
6. System modeling with net structures;
   
   
7. On periodic solutions of affine recurrence systems;
   
   
8. Communication mechanics.

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