Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 23:18:15 GMT
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22C:294 Seminar on Systems and Networks
22C:294
Seminar on Systems and Networks
Course Home Page for Spring 1996
- Instructor: Ted Herman
- Meeting time and place: 15:30 MWF in 110 MLH
- Content:
The seminar will be a research-oriented investigation
of selected topics in the area of distributed computing.
To illustrate some of the fundamental and most interesting
aspects of recent research, I have chosen some problems
and results that are self-contained and have a puzzle-like
quality:
- Wait-Free Objects ---
under certain conditions,
data structure operations can be concurrent and
guarantee that no single operation is ever blocked.
- Self-Stabilization ---
how to write programs
that always correct themselves after external disruptions.
- Firing Squad ---
a number of simply stated
synchronization problems have elegant solutions.
- Register Constructions ---
is it possible to create ``atomicity'' or related notions from components
that themselves are not atomic?
- Interval Routing ---
for certain types
of networks, routing tables can be quite compact using
graph-theoretic properties.
- Sorting Networks ---
actually not a ``network''
in the sense of the Internet, these special-purpose
structures show how parallel sorting, counting, and
load-balancing can be implemented.
- Garbage Collection ---
in a system with distributed objects, when and how
are ``orphans'' reclaimed?
- Workload: Students are expected to work on
some projects and give presentations; since this is
a research seminar, creativity will be emphasized.
- Textbook: There will be no textbook for
the course; we will look at papers from the literature.
- Prerequisites: The student should have taken
22C:194 Distributed Systems or have some equivalent
exposure to basic problems of asynchronous distributed
computing. If in doubt, come ask me!
Ted Herman
Wed 22 Nov 1995