Text Book:
Distributed Systems, by Tanenbaum and van Steen (Primary Text)
Advanced Concepts in Operating Systems, by Singhal and Shivratri (Additional Reading)
Prerequisite:
CSE 660 (Operating Systems) or Equivalent

Course Contents:
The following is a tentative list. Topics may be added or deleted as we go through the quarter.

• Introduction to distributed systems
• Synchronization Mechanisms
• Mutual exclusion
• Interprocess communication
• Distributed Mutual Exclusion
• Deadlocks
• Fault Tolerance
• Coherence in distributed systems
• Other misc. related topics

Grading:
The course will be graded as follows:

1.

Homework Assignments: 20 points

2.

Mid-term Examination: 30 points

3.

Final Examination: 40 points

4.

Best of 2 or 3: 10 points

General Instructions:

• Home-work Assignments: 4 homework assignments will be given during the quarter and they will be evaluted by your grader. Homeworks will be due in class, by the end of the class time. Late submissions will not be accepted, unless there are compelling circumstances and the instructor has been informed in advance. All graded work must be students' own work.

• Exams: Two exams will be given in the quarter.

  Mid-term examination will be held on Thursday, October 27th, out of class . The reason for conducting the exam out of class is to allow more time (more than 48 minutes) for taking the exam. Students can take the exam in either of the two slots: 4:15 - 5:30 pm or 5:30 - 6:45 pm, depending upon their schedule. Note, however, that students who take the exam during the 4:15 - 5:30 slot will not be allowed to leave the room early, and similarly, students who take the exam during the 5:30 - 6:45 slot will not be allowed if they arrive late. In the unlikely scenario that you cannot be available for either of these two slots on 27th October, you must inform the instructor by Monday, 26th September, explicitly describing the nature of the conflict. The room for the mid-term examination will be announced later.

  The final examination will be held during the final exam week, as scheduled by the registrar, in the classroom we normally meet in.

• Slides: Slides from lectures will generally be made available online. To the extent possible, I will try to post them by evening the previous day, so you can bring printed copies to the lecture.