Distributed System Illustrated is an educational series using diagrams and intuitive explanations to teach core distributed systems concepts, including replication, consistency, data partitioning, consensus algorithms, and logical clocks. A complete PDF e-book version is available on Leanpub for offline reference.
Jetpack is an add-on framework for leader-based consensus protocols that enables 1-RTT fast-path commits by running parallel execution paths, reducing latency in WAN deployments. However, the dual-log architecture introduces redundant network traffic and CPU overhead, and the fast commit optimization only benefits write-heavy workloads with nil-externality; interactive reads still require the full 2-RTT latency. Evaluation across six consensus systems on AWS datacenters demonstrates gains for write-heavy pipelines using YCSB workloads.
Spectacle is a browser-native interactive tool for exploring and visualizing TLA+ formal specifications, featuring a full Javascript-based interpreter that enables real-time interaction without external dependencies. It supports animated visualizations, local file exploration, and protocol trace sharing, with validation through conformance testing against TLC.