Q/A: Distributed Systems

A distributed system is any group communicating processes, each of which have their own CPU(s) to execute their own tasks. This may be within a multiple-CPU computer, as well as around the world. Of course, the capabilities and the problems may vary widely depending on the configuration. You may read some of the uses, and the usual difficulties with programming such systems on this page.

Tanenbaum (1992; in "Modern Operating Systems", Prentice-Hall) lists the design issues for distributed systems under five categories:

• Transparency
• Flexibility
• Reliability
• Performance
• Scalability

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