Principles of Computer System Design

About Part II

Part II of this textbook continues a main theme of Part I—enforcing modularity—by introducing still stronger forms of modularity. Part I introduces the client/service model and virtualization, both of which help prevent accidental errors in one module from propagating to another. Part II introduces stronger forms of modularity that can help protect against component and system failures, as well as malicious attacks. Part II explores communication networks, constructing reliable systems from unreliable components, creating all-or-nothing and before-or-after transactions, and implementing security. In doing so, Part II also introduces additional design principles to guide a designer who needs to build computer systems that have stronger ...