Announcement (Tues, 14 Nov 2006): HW#3 Assigned, Due Nov 21st at night

Written homework #3 has been assigned and is available online here. This short homework only covers Chapter 7 (Deadlock). It is due next Tuesday (11/21/06) at midnight, but there is a one-hour grace period build into the online deadline.

Announcement (Mon, 13 Nov 2006): Logical Time and Distributed Snapshots

Some students have asked about papers covering logical time and distributed snapshots. The original paper on the happens-before relation and logical time comes from Leslie Lamport's paper Time, Clocks and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System. The distributed snapshot algorithm comes from Chandy and Lamport's paper Distributed Snapshots: Determining Global States of a Distributed System. These papers are also linked below in the "Slides and Handouts" section. Additionally, the textbook covers some of these topics at the beginning of Chapter 18.

Announcement (Thurs, 26 Oct 2006): MP-2 Due Sunday at 1pm ... Free iPod Shuffle!

Apparently there will be an all-day power-outage in the Department Saturday that will interfere with working on MP-2. As such, the deadline for MP-2 has been postponed until 1pm in the afternoon this Sunday, October 29th. This will be the final deadline, and, yes, it is in the afternoon in hopes that you will spend the remainder of Sunday studying for the midterm on Tuesday.

Also, as I mentioned in class today, a few students have identified a race condition in the existing code for MP-2. Dr. Bettati is offering an iPod Shuffle for whoever identifies the race condition and proposes the most ELEGANT solution. You can modify the source files, but we want to see working code! If more than one solution qualifies, there will be a drawing. Happy Hacking!

Announcement (Thurs, 19 Oct 2006): Upcoming Due Dates

Please take note of the following three upcoming due dates. Written Homework #2 is due next Wednesday, October 25th at midnight. Machine Problem MP-2 will be due the following day on Thursday, October 26th at midnight. The midterm will be held the subsequent week during class on Tuesday, October 31st. (Boo!) In preparation for the midterm, we will be holding a review session during class on Thursday, October 26th.

Announcement (Thurs, 19 Oct 2006): Written Homework #2

Written Homework #2 has been assigned. It can be accessed on the WileyPlus website here. This homework covers Chapters 5-6 in the textbook. It is due at midnight next Wednesday, October 25th. Please note that a 1-hour grace period has been built in to the online due date.

Announcement (Weds, 18 Oct 2006): Sample Midterm

Several students have asked me to post a sample midterm exam. One can be accessed here. Please note the disclaimer that tests during this semester may or may not be similar to the given sample test. Good performance on sample-test questions provides no guarantee that you will do well in the actual exam.

Announcement (Weds, 4 Oct 2006):

There have been Internet disruptions both on and off campus throughout Wednesday which have interfered with CSNet. In fairness, the deadline for MP-1 has been extended for (yet another) 24 hours until midnight on Thursday. We anticipate that this will be the final extension, so please plan accordingly.

Announcement (Weds, 4 Oct 2006):

Apparently CSNet was unavailable for extended periods last night due to power failures. As such, the deadline for MP-1 has been extended by 24 hours until midnight tonight (Wednesday).

Announcement (Mon, 2 Oct 2006):

Written homework #1 has been assigned on the Wiley website. It consists of 35 short essay and multiple choice questions covering Chapters 1-4. It is due a week from today at Midnight next Monday, October 9th. I have enabled the links for each question so that you can focus your study on those aspects of the text that support the questions in this homework. For the (short) essay questions, I encourage you to review the associated sections from the textbook, but DO NOT just copy from the text itself. The assignment will be graded out of a total of 50 points, with each essay worth 2 points, and all other questions worth 1 point each. Finally, you can also print out a blank copy of the entire assignment, in case you want to study or review offline before entering your answers.

Announcement (Tues, 26 Sept 2006):

Recall that the second Machine Problem (MP-1) is due a week from today on Tuesday, October 3rd at midnight. Dr. Bettati will be away on travel after Wednesday this week and so will not have office hours Thursday this week. He will still have office hours today (Tues) from 3:40-4:40 in HRBB 409C for those with questions about MP-1. Additionally, the tutorial will still be held tomorrow night (Weds) at 8:00pm. It will be run by the teaching assistant Nikhil Gupta.

Announcement (Weds, 13 Sept 2006):

The second programming problem (MP-1) is now available here. It can also be accessed off of the 410 projects page here. The MP-1 assignment will be due Tuesday night, October 3rd at 11:59pm (midnight). Dr. Bettati will be presenting elements of this project during the final 20 minutes of class tomorrow (Thursday, Sept 14th). Additionally, those who had difficulty with MP-0 should strongly consider attending the first tutorial session tonight, Wednesday, Sept 13th at 8:00pm in HRBB room 115.

Announcement (Thurs, 7 Sept 2006):

Machine Problem 0 was assigned this week. The background information supporting this assignment was presented by Dr. Bettati during lecture on Tuesday, Sept 5th. You assignment handout is online here. The supporting files can be found here. For more information and tutorial links, please visit the Projects Homepage. According per the syllabus (linked below), Machine Problem 0 is due this coming Tuesday, Sept 12th. To maximize success, we urge you to please start this project early.