THE BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY THE BCS PROFESSIONAL EXAMINATIONS BCS Level 6 Professional Graduate Diploma in IT DISTRIBUTED &

PARALLEL SYSTEMS
Wednesday 6th May 2009 - Afternoon Answer any THREE questions out of SIX. All questions carry equal marks. Time: THREE hours. Answer any Section A questions you attempt in Answer Book A Answer any Section B questions you attempt in Answer Book B
The marks given in brackets are indicative of the weight given to each part of the question.

Calculators are NOT allowed in this examination. Section A Answer Section A questions in Answer Book A

A1.

a)

Outline the differences between multi-processing and multi-computing. (5 marks)

b)

What is meant by a MIMD architecture? (5 marks)

c)

What is meant by a superscalar processor architecture? (5 marks)

d)

Describe the purpose and function of processor pipelining, illustrating your answer with a suitable example. (10 marks)

A2.

a)

Distinguish between threads and processes. (5 marks)

b)

Distinguish between blocking and non-blocking inter-process/inter-thread communication mechanisms. (5 marks) Highlight the differences between local and distributed objects. (5 marks)

c)

d)

Outline how semaphores may be used for the protection of critical resources. (10 marks)

Turn over]

A3.

a)

Distinguish between datagram and stream sockets, highlighting the impact that each has on performance. (5 marks) Outline the principal difference between peer-to-peer and client-server software architectures. (5 marks) How is speedup for a parallel application calculated? (5 marks)

b)

c)

d)

Describe how quality of service (QoS) parameters will be configured differently for VoIP and data transfer applications. (10 marks)

Section B Answer Section B questions in Answer Book B

B4.

a)

Outline the benefits and disadvantages of cluster computing relative to conventional high-performance supercomputing. (5 marks)

b)

Briefly describe what is meant by the scalability of a parallel algorithm. (5 marks)

c)

Outline the strengths and limitations of the message passing approach to parallel computing. (5 marks) Distinguish between pre-emptive and non-pre-emptive scheduling algorithms, providing an example of each. (10 marks)

d)

B5.

You have been asked to make a 30 minute presentation on the following topic: Grid and Cluster Computing: How are they alike? Sketch out approximately 8 content-rich presentation slides, with associated notes, that you would use for your talk. Please note: your answer will be assessed for its quality of approach, accuracy of content, clarity of expression, range of discussion, and depth of argument. (25 marks)