CS222W. Architectures for Networking and Communication

Prerequisites: CS221W

Syllabus:

• Distributed algorithms: Consensus and election; termination detection; fault tolerance; stabilization
• Interfacing and communication: I/O fundamentals; interrupt structures; external storage, physical organization, and drives; buses; introduction to networks; multimedia support; RAID architectures
• Multiprocessing and alternative architectures: Introduction to SIMD, MIMD, VLIW, EPIC; systolic architecture; interconnection networks; shared memory systems; cache coherence; memory models and memory consistency
• Architecture for networks and distributed systems: Introduction to LANs and WANs; layered protocol design, ISO/OSI, IEEE 802; impact of architectural issues on distributed algorithms; network computing; distributed multimedia
• Concurrency: States and state diagrams; structures; dispatching and context switching; the role of interrupts; concurrent execution; the "mutual exclusion" problem and some solutions; deadlock; models and mechanisms; producer-consumer problems and synchronization; multiprocessor issues
• Scheduling and dispatch: Review of processes and scheduling; deadlines and real-time issues
• Real-time and embedded systems: Process and task scheduling; memory/disk management requirements in a real-time environment; failures, risks, and recovery; special concerns in real-time systems
• Fault tolerance: Fundamental concepts; spatial and temporal redundancy; methods used to implement fault tolerance; examples of reliable systems
• System performance evaluation: Why system performance needs to be evaluated; what is to be evaluated; policies for caching, paging, scheduling, memory management, security, and so forth; evaluation models; how to collect evaluation data
• Scripting: Scripting and the role of scripting languages; basic system commands; creating scripts, parameter passing; executing a script; influences of scripting on programming

Units covered:

AL4	Distributed algorithms	3	core hours
AR5	Interfacing and communication	3	core hours
AR7	Multiprocessing and alternative architectures	3	core hours
AR9	Architecture for networks and distributed systems	5	hours
OS3	Concurrency	4	core hours (of 6)
OS4	Scheduling and dispatch	2	core hours (of 3)
OS9	Real-time and embedded systems	5	hours
OS10	Fault tolerance	5	hours
OS11	System performance evaluation	4	hours
OS12	Scripting	3	hours
	Elective topics	3	hours

Notes:
[to be supplied]

Online resources for CS222W