Department of Computer Science
COLLOQUIUM

Tuesday, August 24, 2004
10:00am
B17 Upson Hall

Leslie Lamport
Microsoft Research

Recent Discoveries from Paxos

The rapid decrease in the cost of computing and networks has made fault tolerance much cheaper. The gradual increase in the IQ of system designers is leading to a switch from programming hacks to provably fault-tolerant algorithms. These developments have motivated the resumption of archaeological research on Paxos. A newly discovered algorithm led to faster decisions in the absence of concurrently proposed laws. By reformulating the foundations of the legal system, Paxos mathematicians allowed faster decisions to be made despite non-conflicting concurrent proposals.

No part of the talk will be in Greek, and only one Greek letter will be used.

Refreshments will be available in the first floor Upson Hall lounge at 9:30am.