CS 380D
Fall 2008
Unique number 55805
Distributed Systems
Instructor Jayadev Misra
office: TAY 3.102
email: misra@cs.utexas.edu
phone: 471-9550
office hours: MW 2:30-3:30P or by appointment
 
Teaching Assistant TBA  
Class MW 3:30-5:00P in RAS 215
 
Make-Up Classes Make-up classes to be announced  
Discussion Sections TBA  
Subject Matter The goal of this course is to present a number of important ideas in distributed computing and provide rigorous methods for reasoning about distributed programs. The topics are: distributed detection algorithms; distributed resource allocation; logical clocks; global snapshot; a logic for reasoning about distributed programs; safety and progress; Byzantine agreement; and transaction processiong. Other subjects may be covered as time allows.
 
Reading Material
Class handouts
(for reference) A Discipline of Multiprogramming, by Jayadev Misra, Springer-Verlag, 2001.
(for reference) Parallel Program Design: A Foundation, by K. Mani Chandy and Jayadev Misra, Addison-Wesley, 1988.
(for reference) Predicate Calculus and Program Semantics, by Edsger W. Dijkstra and Carel S. Scholten, Springer-Verlag, 1990.

 
Tests Three in-class tests will be given. All tests are open book and open notes. Your best test counts for 50% of the grade, the next best for 40%, and the worst one for 10%. Homeworks will be given; they will be discussed in the class and in the discussion sections, but they will not be graded. The tests will be modeled after the homeworks.

 

Student Code of Conduct Please be familiar with the student code of conduct.