Embedded System Distributed Programming System V IPC Course

Introduction to Distributed Programming
System V IPC

Message Queues, Shared Memory, Semaphores

,Definitions
• “Distributed programming is the spreading of a
computational task across several programs, processes or
processors.” – Chris Brown, Unix Distributed Programming
• “A distributed system is one in which the failure of a
computer you didn’t even know existed can render your
own computer unusable.” – Leslie Lamport
• “A parallel computer is a set of processors that are able to
work cooperatively to solve a computational problem.” –
Ian Foster, Designing and Building Parallel Programs
• “A distributed system is a system in which multiple
processes coordinate in solving a problem and, in the
process of solving that problem, create other problems.” –
Mark Shacklette

,Benefits of Distributed Programming
• Divide and Conquer
• Concurrency
• Parallelism
• Component Reuse via pipelines (Modularity)
• Location Independence
• Scalability
• Resource Sharing

, Mainframe Topology

Wilma's Dumb Terminal
Bev's Dumb Terminal
Nellie's Dumb Terminal

Clarence's Dumb Terminal




Line Printer




Mainframe