M.I.T. DEPARTMENT OF EECS

6.033 - Computer System Engineering Handout 32 - Issued April 20, 2000


Assignment 10: May 1 to May 5


Lecture, Monday, May 1 (L23: Multi-site Transactions)

Please read Chapter 8, sections E and F (pages 8-59 to 8-74) of the class notes.

Recitation, Tuesday, May 2 (R23: Coda)

Read "Disconnected operation in the Coda file system" by Kistler and Satyanarayanan, reading #27. This paper looks at issues related to mobile computers that disconnect and reconnect to a file server. By the way, everyone who's cool calls Satyanarayanan "Satya."

There is no one-pager for today. Work on your critique of another team's Design Project 2 (see Handout 33 for details). However, think about this issue while reading the Coda paper:

Applications running on top of the Coda filesystem may be unaware that they can become disconnected from their file server(s). This violates the end-to-end argument. Demonstrate that this is the case and then briefly discuss the main benefit that results from the design of Coda violating the end-to-end argument.

Lecture, Wednesday, May 3 (L24: Perspectives on Complexity)

Today is a guest lecture by Professor Ed Crawley from Course 16 (Aero-Astro). For lecture read chapters 1, 2, and 4 of Brooks' "The Mythical Man-Month". This book is a classic that all systems people should have on their bookshelf. Although slightly old, it contains a unique perspective and advice on building complex systems. You will probably re-read this book several times during the next couple of decades. We all do.

Recitation, Thursday, May 4 (Team presentations)

Today is blind peer review day for Design Project 2! You will give the 5-minute presentations you have prepared on the DP2 paper you received last Thursday. Please see Handout 33 for the peer review details. In addition to the presentation, your team should hand in a single one-page reading report on the paper that you reviewed as a group. This one-page report should include the names of all the team members/evaluators as well as the 6-digit "secret" code. The one-page reports should be attached to the anonymous copy of the paper you were evaluating.
System aphorism of the week

Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher.
(It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.)
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Terre des Hommes (Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939, Chapter 3 "The Tool")



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