Description

The course covers the new concurrency features in Java 5, 6, and 7 and with a brief introduction to lock-free algorithms. The course is aimed at PhD students writing concurrent Java code in their PhD projects.

A sequel course is planned that will cover lock-free algorithms in more detail, based on the book by Herlihy & Shavit below.

Administrative details

• Course leader: Görel Hedin, gorel.hedin AT cs.lth.se
• Credits: 7.5 hp
• When: Fall 2013
• The number of PhD student participants is limited to around 10. Other faculty is welcome to attend the seminars.
• Prerequisites: Proficiency in sequential Java. Basics of concurrent programming (like EDA040).
• Course code: EDA015F, official course plan

Literature

Textbook: [Book] Brian Goetz et al: Java: Concurrency in Practice. Addison-Welsey 2006. ISBN: 0321349601 (adlibris entry, addison-wesley entry. This book covers the concurrency mechanisms up to Java 5. In Java 7, the fork-join framework was added, for which we will use the blog articles below.

Articles and book excerpts:

• Software Transactional Memory:
  • [Harris] Tim Harris and Keir Fraser: Language Support for Lightweight Transactions. OOPSLA 2003. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/949305.949340 (alternative link)
  • [Korland] Guy Korland, Nir Shavit, Pascal Felber: Noninvasive concurrency with Java STM. 2010. Transactions on HiPEAC: Volume 5, Issue 2.
• The fork join framework:
  • [Goetz1] Brian Goetz: Stick a fork in it, Part 1, Nov 2007
  • [Goetz2] Brian Goetz: Stick a fork in it, Part 2, Mar 2008
  • [Ponge] Julien Ponge: Fork and Join: Java Can Excel at Painless Parallel Programming Too!, July 2011
• The Akka framework:
  • Java Champion Jonas Boner Explains the Akka Platform, by Janice J. Heiss
  • Open source Java projects: Akka. By Steven Haines, JavaWorld.com 05/08/13.
  • Akka Java Documentation. Release 2.2.3. Aug 28, 2013. Chapters 1-2.8
• [Herlihy & Shavit] Book excerpt: Chapter 9: Linked Lists: The Role of Locking. From the following textbook: Maurice Herlihy & Nir Shavit: The Art of Multiprocessor Programming. Morgan Kaufmann, Revised first edition, 2012. ISBN: 0123973376 (adlibris entry, elsevier entry). If you will not be taking the next course, and don't want to buy this book, you might be able to loan it for a short while from another participant.
• [Choice] Additional articles chosen by participants. Some suggestions are available here.

Form

The course is given as a series of seminars:

• At each seminar, a number of chapters and/or papers will be presented by some of the students.
• All students should have read these chapters/papers in advance.
• Between seminars, participants do programming exercises, devised by the presenters.
• The last seminar is different: Here each participant presents a paper of his/her own choice. These papers do not have to be read in advance by the other participants.

Course requirements

• Presentation of two chapters at two of the seminars 2-6. For each of these two presentations:
  • Prepare a talk of 10-15 minutes, explaining the main concepts and terminology, and giving examples. Provide readable informative slides.
  • Provide exercises in the form of questions and simple programming exercises for the topics covered in your chapter. It should be possible to complete the these exercises within 1-2 hours. You may also add optional exercises that are more difficult. Email the slides and the exercises to Görel, as two pdf files, the same day as the presentation at the latest. They will be uploaded and accessible from this page.
  • Correct exercise solutions from all participants. You will receive them two days before the next seminar at the latest.
  • If relevant, prepare a brief discussion about the solutions for the next seminar.
  • Total estimated time for this part: 2x2.5 days.
• Read all the material covered in seminars 2-6. You should have read through all the material related to a given seminar before that seminar. Estimated time: 5x1.5 days
• Do the exercises relating to seminars 2-6. You should have completed the exercises, and emailed your solutions to the participant who created them, at least two days before the next seminar. Estimated time: 5x1 days
• At seminar 7, present one article of your own choice, related to the course. Provide readable informative slides for the article. Email the slides to all participants the same day at the latest. Estimated time: 2.5 days
• Participate actively at (almost) all seminars. Estimated time: 7x0.5 days

Mailinglist

eda015f-2013 AT listserver.lu.se

NB! Links to presentations and exercises will be uploaded shortly after the presentations. Until then they will give 404 errors. If the exercises file is missing, it might be that the exercises are at the end of the presentation file. If you still get the 404 error when you think the material should be there, try reloading the page.

Articles

The articles below are just suggestions. Please feel free to find other interesting articles on your own.