M362: Developing Concurrent Distributed Systems

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Supplementary material for
M362: Developing Concurrent Distributed Systems
Tutor-Marked Assignment (Fall 2015)
Cut-Off Date:
Total Marks: 40
Contents
Warnings and Declaration………………………………………………………………………………..
Question 1 (16 marks)………………………….…………………………………………………………
Question 2 (5 marks)…………………………………………………………………………..……….…
Question 3 (5 marks)……………………………………………………..…………………………….…
Question 4 (14 marks)…………………………………………………………..……………..……….…
Plagiarism Warning:
As per AOU rules and regulations, all students are required to submit their own TMA work and avoid plagiarism. The AOU has implemented sophisticated techniques for plagiarism detection. You must provide all references in case you use and quote another person's work in your TMA. You will be penalized for any act of plagiarism as per the AOU's rules and regulations.
Declaration of No Plagiarism by Student (to be signed and submitted by student with TMA work):
I hereby declare that this submitted TMA work is a result of my own efforts and I have not plagiarized any other person's work. I have provided all references of information that I have used and quoted in my TMA work.
Name of Student: ………………………………..
Signature: …………………………………………...
Date: …………………………………………………
Arab Open University
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Question 1: (16 marks)
Distributed computing systems are considered one of the main components of today’s information technology. Using the internet and other resources, write (using your own words) a report explaining the following factors:
 State of the Art of distributed systems? (4 marks)
 Future Trends in Distributed Systems? (4 marks)
 What are the challenges that facing distributed systems in future? (4 marks)
Report Writing:
Please adhere to the following guidelines for writing your report:
 Your report should be up to 500 words in length. Under-length and over-length reports will be penalized. ( >500: -2 marks)
 Your report should include at least two figures and/or tables. Do not forget to include a caption for each figure/table and to use cross-referencing. (1 Marks)
 Ensure that your report meets the objectives, has an appropriate structure and style, and that its technical level is appropriate for the audience, purpose and medium. (2 Marks)
 You must cite all the references i.e. any internet web site, book, journal, article etc. that you have used as a source of information for your report (1 marks)
Question 2: (5 marks) Describe the concept of time slicing as it applies to CPU scheduling?
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Question 3: (5 marks)
Deadlock is a situation that occurs when one thread is holding a resource that another thread is waiting for, while the other thread is holding a resource that the first thread is waiting for. Describe how deadlock can occur at a four-way intersection, with cars entering the intersection from each branch. How can it be avoided?
Question 4: (14 marks)
Write a multithreaded Java code which generates 4 threads for writing the latest temperature of 4 cities on a shared file. The java code should allow one thread at one time to write the temperature value on the shared file. As a result, the temperature of only one city should appear on the file at one time. Note that the temperature value should be generated using rand() method. The system should not allow the same thread to write on the file in two consequent times, and it should allow other thread to use the file for writing.
Good-Luck