We show that the domain of formal balls of a complete partial metric space (X, p) can be endowed with a complete partial metric that extends p and induces the Scott topology. This result, that generalizes well-known constructions of Edalat and Heckmann [A computational model for metric spaces, Theoret. Comput. Sci. 193 (1998), pp. 53-73] and Heckmann [Approximation of metric spaces by partial metric spaces, Appl. Cat. Struct. 7 (1999), pp. 71-83] for metric spaces and improves a recent result of Romaguera and Valero [A quantitative computational model for complete partial metric spaces via formal balls, Math. Struct. Comput. Sci. 19 (2009), pp. 541-563], motivates a notion of a partially metrizable computational model which allows us to characterize those topological spaces that admit a compatible complete partial metric via this model.

The authors acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, under grant MTM2009-12872-C02-01.