CS 3650 - Computer Systems

Introduces the basic design of computing systems, computer operating systems, and assembly language using a RISC architecture. Describes caches and virtual memory. Covers the interface between assembly language and high-level languages, including call frames and pointers. Covers the use of system calls and systems programming to show the interaction with the operating system. Covers the basic structures of an operating system, including application interfaces, processes, threads, synchronization, interprocess communication, deadlock, memory management, file systems, and input/output control.

Resources

• Bottlenose - Find and submit homework assignments.
• Piazza - Class discussion.
• MARS 4.5 - The MIPS simulator we'll be using.
• MARS Syscalls - Also the rest of the MARS docs.
• Operating Systems, Three Easy Pieces - Online text.
• Xv6 Unix Source - Another online "text".
• Prof Cooperman's Course Page - Lots of links to great resources.
• Linux / Unix help - How to use standard *nix tools.
• Upper Class Tutoring
• Nat's Lecture Notes - Probably confusing, but includes most code shown in class.

Office Hours

Nat Tuck	WVH 314	Wed 3-4pm, Fri 4-5pm	ntuck ⚓ ccs.neu.edu
Patel Savan	WVH 1st Floor Lab	Mon 2pm-4pm	patel.sav ⚓ husky.neu.edu
Aakash Kumar	WVH 1st Floor Lab	Wed 11am-2pm	aakash.k ⚓ husky.neu.edu

Textbook

Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface
Patterson & Hennessy
Fifth Edition

We'll also be using Operating Systems, Three Easy Pieces and the Xv6 Unix Source code, available online.

Work For This Class

Homework Assignments

Homework will be assigned and submitted through Bottlenose.

Late homework will be penalized 1% for every hour late, except for the last assignment which must be submitted on time for credit.

Some homework assignments may provide extra credit opportunities, which will allow for homework scores over 100%.

Participation

Participation has several parts:

• Answering questions in class when randomly selected.
• Asking good questions and giving good answers on Piazza.
• The classwide response rate to TRACE evaluations at grade submission time will make up a portion of everyone's participation grade.

Grading

Homework	95%
Participation	5%

Schedule

Here's how the semester is likely to play out. Details subject to change.

Dates	Topics	Work Due
Jan 10 Jan 13	Introduction ASM: Functions, Iteration, Recursion	HW01: The CCIS Linux Server Read: Ch 1, Ch 2.1-2.8
Jan 17 Jan 20	ASM: "Design Recipe" ASM: Static Data, Syscalls, I/O, Memory Allocation	HW02: Simple ASM Read: Ch 2.1-2.8, Appendix A.6, A.9, A.10 Read: Green Card
Jan 24 Sep 27	C: Functions, Pointers, and The Stack C: Arrays and Pointers	HW03: Sort in ASM
Jan 31 Feb 3	C: malloc, structs, and data structures UNIX Syscalls: fork, exec, waitpid	HW04: Sort in C
Feb 7 Feb 10	Building a Shell C: I/O with read, write & mmap (process table)	Read: ostep.org: Ch 5, 14
Feb 14 Feb 17	Virtual Memory, Page Tables, MMU (slides) Memory Allocation: Free List	HW05*: UNIX Shell Read: Ch 5.3 - 5.4
Feb 21 Feb 24	Memory Allocation: Buddy System, Slabs Garbage Collection	HW06*: Simple Memory Allocator
Feb 28 Mar 3	POSIX Threads, Mutexes Cond Vars, Semaphores, Atomics	HW07: Advanced Memory Allocators Read: xv6 proc.h, proc.c, vm.c
Mar 7 Mar 10	Spring Break!
Mar 14 Mar 17	IPC: mmap and semaphores IPC: pipes and named pipes	HW08: Producer / Consumer (Threads) Read: Ch 5.7; ostep.org: Ch 15, 18, 19
Mar 21 Mar 24	Operating Systems (slides) Introducing xv6	HW09: Producer / Consumer (Processes) Read: ostep.org: Ch 26, 27.1, 27.2
Mar 28 Mar 31	Solutions for Parallelism IPC: Sockets	HW10: Examining xv6 Read: ostep.org: Ch 27.3, 28, 31
Apr 4 Apr 7	File Systems (slides) Introduction to FUSE	HW11*: Thread Safe Memory Allocator ostep.org: Ch 30
Apr 11 Apr 14	Authentication and Access Control (slides) Exploit Prevention (slides)
Apr 18	File System HW Workshop	HW12*: File System

* Starred homeworks will probably be worth double points.

Policies

Code Copying & Collabaration Policy

Copying code and submitting it without proper attribution is strictly prohibited in this class. This is plagiarism, which is completely unacceptable.

Details:

• For solo assignments, you should personally write your code either from scratch or using only the starter code provided in the assignment.
• For team assignments, if any, your team should do the same.
• Sharing your code with other students is not allowed.
• Looking at code written by other students is not allowed.
• You can read code from the internet or text books, but copying it - even to use as a starting point for your code - is not allowed.

Collaboration and Attribution:

Since it's not plagiarism if you provide attribution, as a special exception to these rules, any code sharing with attribution will not be treated as a major offense. Instead, credit will be split between the writers of the code.

In order to qualify for this exception, every collaborator must include a prominent notice either as a multi-line comment at the top of the submitted single source file or at the top of a submitted README file identifying all collaborators.

For example, if four students work together code source, the submission will be graded as usual and then the points will be split evenly four ways as long as the collaboration is clearly indicated in the submissions.

Penalities:

• First Offense:
  • Your final grade will be reduced by an entire letter (e.g. A to B, B to C, etc).
  • You will recive a 0 on the assignment.
  • You will be reported to OSCCR.
  • You will be reported to CCIS.
• Second Offense:
  • Your final grade will be an F.
  • You will be reported to OSCCR and CCIS again.