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National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences (FAST)

CS 416 Parallel & Distributed Computing
BS (TE/CE) 8th Semester Spring 2009

Midterm Examination # 2
Student ID: ___________ Date: April 14, 2009
Name: _______________ Time Allowed: 60 Minutes
Section: _____________ Max. Marks: 150
Instructions:
1. Attempt ALL questions. Give short to-the-point answers, in clear handwriting, within the given space.
2. Pencil work shall not be marked at all. Neatly use margins for rough work.
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Q1. Explain Metcalf’s Law that says “The value of a network is proportional to the square of the
number of nodes”. Assume Internet as the network. [20]

Q2 Explain that “Client/Server is a Distributed System” using a real world example. [20]
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Q3 List features that “Single System Image (SSI)” infrastructure of a homogenous Cluster provides to a
user application. [30]
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Q4. Why the inventor of C++ -- Bjarne Stroustrup -- advocated the use of concurrency support
libraries instead of keyword primitive for parallelism? Justify your answer given the fact that
you are asked to write a parallel application in C++ which could be ported on different
supercomputing infrastructure. Assume availability of libraries & compiler on all platforms. [20]

Q5. What does the term Beowulf Cluster mean? Suppose your cluster is interconnected using Giga bit
Ethernet. State your strategy to speedup Cluster performance by focusing only on utilizing new
interconnection technology. [10+20]
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Q6. What levels of parallelism are possible within a single computer program? Explain with the help of
a diagram. How would you parallelize a user application consisting of many different single
computer programs? [20+10]

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