CS6868: Concurrent Programming

Course Overview

This course explores the fundamentals of concurrent and parallel programming with a focus on shared-memory multiprocessor systems. You’ll learn to design and implement correct, efficient concurrent programs while understanding the theoretical foundations and practical challenges of concurrency and parallelism.

Key Topics:

Principles of concurrent programming
Mutual exclusion and synchronization
Concurrent data structures
Lock-free and wait-free algorithms
Memory models and consistency
Parallel programming patterns
Effect handlers
Nested parallelism, Asynchronous I/O
Practical implementations using OCaml 5’s multicore features
Safe parallel programming with OxCaml

The course uses OCaml 5 with native support for parallelism via domains and concurrency via effect handlers, providing hands-on experience with modern concurrent programming techniques.

Prerequisites

OCaml parts of CS3100 or equivalent functional programming experience
Basic understanding of operating systems and computer architecture

Essential Details

Instructor: KC Sivaramakrishnan, who goes by “KC”.
Where: CS26
When: D slot
- Mon: 1100
- Tue: 1000
- Wed: 0900
- Thu: 1200
Slack: https://cs6868s26iitm.slack.com
Moodle: https://courses.iitm.ac.in/course/view.php?id=11146
TAs:

Name	Email (@smail.iitm.ac.in)
Abdun Nihaal	cs23d008@smail.iitm.ac.in
Md. Isfarul Haque	cs22b010@smail.iitm.ac.in
Dhanush	cs24m047@smail.iitm.ac.in
Mustaq	cs24m045@smail.iitm.ac.in

Liaise with the TAs over email about where to meet.

Grading

Item	Weightage (%)
In-class short quizzes (best 5/6)	20
Mid-term exam	20
End semester exam	20
Programming assignments (4)	24
Research mini project	16

The dates of the in-class short quizzes will be announced a priori. We will use absolute grading: S 90, A 80, B 70, C 60, D 50, E 35.

Acknowledgements

This course material is inspired by and adapted from:

The Art of Multiprocessor Programming, 2nd Edition by Maurice Herlihy, Nir Shavit, Victor Luchangco, and Michael Spear
YSC4231: Parallel, Concurrent and Distributed Programming by Ilya Sergey (Yale-NUS College)
Control structures in programming languages: from goto to algebraic effects by Xavier Leroy