The actor model is something that you'll likely be very familiar with if you're an Erlang or Scala user. The difference between CSP and the actor model is negligible but important. With CSP, messages from one channel can only be completely sent if another channel is listening and ready for them. The actor model does not necessarily require a ready channel for another to send. In fact, it stresses direct communication rather than relying on the conduit of a channel.

Both systems can be nondeterministic, which we've already seen demonstrated in Go/CSP in our earlier examples. CSP and goroutines are anonymous and transmission is specified by the channel rather than the source and destination. An easy way to visualize this in pseudocode in the actor model is as follows:

a = new Actor
b = new Actor
a -> b("message")

In CSP, it is as follows:

a = new Actor
b = new Actor
c = new Channel
a -> c("sending something")
b <- c("receiving something")

Both serve the same fundamental functionality but through slightly different ways.