CSCI 339

Distributed Systems

Home | Calendar | Assignments | CS@Williams

Home

Instructor: Prof. Jeannie Albrecht
Email: jeannie@cs.williams.edu
Phone: x4251
Office: TCL 305
Office Hours: Tue 1-2:30pm, Wed 1-2:30pm, by appt
Jae's Hours (in lab): Mon-Thur 2pm-4pm, Sun-Thur 7pm-9pm
Class Meeting Times: MTh 1:10-2:25pm in TBD

Recommended
Textbook:
Distributed Systems,
by M. van Steen and A.S. Tanenbaum, 4th ed., 2023.
You can obtain a free digital version using the above link.

Course Description

This course studies the key design principles of distributed systems, which are collections of independent networked computers that function as single coherent systems. Covered topics include communication protocols, processes and threads, naming, synchronization, consistency and replication, fault tolerance, and security. Students also examine some specific real-world distributed systems case studies, ranging from the Internet to file systems. Class discussion is based on readings from the textbook and research papers. The goals of this course are to understand how large-scale computational systems are built, and to provide students with the tools necessary to evaluate new technologies after the course ends.

Policies

Course Syllabus
Department Honor Code and Usage Policy