<title>Syllabus</title>

Course Syllabus

ICS 148 - Distributed Systems

Spring 2006

Prof. A. Veidenbaum

Prerequisites: ICS141 and 143 (or equivalent).

Textbook: "Distributed Systems" by Andrew Tannenbaum and Maarten van Steen

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is an introduction to distributed systems. It examines major concepts involved in making distributed systems and applications using a collection of independent, communicating single-processor systems. The course assumes knowledge of basic operating systems' principles and builds on top of these.

Major topics covered in this course are:

Communication

Processes

Naming

Synchronization

Consistency and replication

Fault tolerance

Security

The course is composed of three components: lectures, assignments, and quizzes. There will be 6 assignments, a number of quizzes, and a final exam.

The objective of the lectures is to introduce and help you understand the concepts. The assignments aim to strengthen and enhance your understanding. The assignments are based on lecture material and textbook readings and focus on putting the concepts to practice and actual distributed programming. One or more of the assignments will involve distributed programming.

Quizzes will test reading assignment comprehension. Lecture and discussion attendance is mandatory.

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

Instructor: Professor A. Veidenbaum

210 CECS (IERF building)

alexv-AT-ics.uci.edu

Office Hours: TuTh at 4:45 to 5:15pm (immediately after class) or by appointment.

TA: Ersin Uzun (euzun-AT-uci.edu)

Office Hours: Mondays(2-3pm) and Fridays (after Discussion Sect.), 4400 CAL-IT building.

All assignments will be available on the web. All programming assignments will be submitted electronically on EEE.

GRADING

Your grade in ICS148 will depend on your performance on quizzes, assignments, and the final. The following approximate weights are going to be used:

Quizzes - 10% ……………………………………Class and lab attendance is mandatory

Assignments - 35%

Midterm - 20%

Final - 35%

Individual assignments carry different weights depending on the degree of difficulty.

Late assignments will NOT be accepted (exceptions for illness or other cases may be made, in writing, as soon as possible and preferably before the due date. See a TA).

Assignment scores will be posted on EEE.

If you wish to have something re-graded, you MUST write a cover sheet and hand it to the TA or the instructor. Explain why you believe a problem (or problems) was mis-graded. The re-grades will only be considered for a period of 1 week following the date the results have been posted.