BUGEMA UNIVERSITY
A CHARTERED SEVENTH-DAY INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING
MAIN/KAMPALA CAMPUS
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING
COURSE OUTLINE
BNCT 312 PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED
SYSTEMS
2023/2024 ACADEMIC YEAR
JAN-MAY 2024
Lecturer’s Name & Qualification: Nantege Hellen M. and SSewankambo Erma
Contact Hours: Three (3) hours per week
Tutorial Hours: 1 hr per week
Timing and Location:
Mode of Delivery: Lectures, presentations, practical Implementation
Mode of assessment: Test, assignments and Examinations
Consultation Time: OPEN
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will introduce students to parallel and distributed systems, focusing on both shared memory
parallel computers and distributed memory multicomputer or clusters. Students will also be introduced to
concepts of parallel programming using appropriate program languages (eg. C++ and Java). Topics to be
covered will include introduction to parallel and distributed systems, hardware architecture, software
architecture, concurrency enterprise systems and synchronization, data and work portioning, common
parallel strategies, shared memory and threads, multiprocesors, distributed memory and message passing,
system area networks, Network protocol impact, operating systems issues and virtualization.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To enable students acquire knowledge in parallel and distributed systems
To train in key issues of sharing memory in large networks
To train students the different architectures used in distributed systems and how it
supports message passing
LEARNING OUTCOMES.
at the end of this course students should be able to:
Distinguish between parallel and distributed systems
Explain the different software and hardware architectures used in distributed systems
clusters
Explain the use of shared memory parallel computers and distributed memory
multicomputer
Distinguish between cloud computing, grid computing and peer to peer networks
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSESSMENT
Attendance 5%
Assignments 10%
Tests 15%
Presentations 20%
Final Exam 50%
GRADING SCALE AND ASSESSMENT (See the Respective Academic Bulletin)
Students should be aware that the grading and assessments of any tests, assignments and exams
are standard and can not be compromised by either a lecturer or students. The bulletin gives the
final grade point average of the
COURSE OUTLINE / CONTENT (NB: Please indicate any Holidays, Main events or breaks)
Month Week/Date Topic/Activity Assignment Remarks
(Include Lectures & Tutorials)
January Wk 2 Registration
Wk 3 and 4 Introduction to parallel 6 hours
computing, distributed systems,
parallel architecture, performance
of parallel computers,
performance metrics for
processors, parallel programming
models
February Wk 1&2 Pipeline performance, arithmetic 6 hours
pipelines, pipeline instruction
processing, hazards, Multi-
threading synchronization issues
and solutions ,common
parallelization strategies, load
balancing
Wk 3&4 Shared memory and distributed 6 hours
memory, SIMD architecture and
programming principles, data
mapping, SIMD parallel processors
reviewed
March Wk 1&2 Goals of distributed systems, types assignment 6 hours
of distributed systems, distributed
system models, hardware
concepts, software concept,
models of middleware, client
server model
Wk 3&4 Cloud computing & virtualization Test 6 hours
April Wk 1&2 Data centric and client centric 6 hours
models, replica management
Wk 3 Features of distributed file 3hours
systems, file models, file accessing
models, file replication, network
file system (NFS), Andrew file
system (AFS)
Wk 4 Final exams
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Coulouris, Jean Dollimoreand Tim KindbergDistributed Systems: Concepts and Design, Third
Edition Published by Addison –Wesley 2000
2. Software Architecture in Practice (2nd edition), Bass, Clements, and Kazman
3. Clemens Szyperski: Component Software: Beyond Object-Oriented Programming, Addison
Wesley Publishing Company, 2002
4. Jon Siegel: An Overview Of CORBA 3.0, Object Management Group, 2002
5. Christine Hofmeister, Robert Nord, DilipSoni: Applied Software Architecture, Addison
Wesley -Object Technology Series, 1999
6. Paul Clements, Felix Bachmann, Len Bass, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Robert
Nord, Judith Stafford: Documenting Software Architectures -Views and Beyond, Addison-
Wesley, 2002
7. Frank Buschmann, RegineMeunier, Hans Rohnert, Peter Sommerlad, Michael Stal: Pattern-
OrientedSoftware Architecture, Volume 1: A System of Patterns, John Wiley & Sons., 1996
