Spring 2019
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.
| Section | Location | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | BK 310 | 1:35pm-3:15pm Tu/Fr |
| 02 | BK 310 | 3:25pm-5:05pm Tu/Fr |
| Name | Location | Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nat Tuck | NI 132 E | Tu 5:30-6:30pm; Th 2-3pm | ntuck ⚓ ccs.neu.edu |
| Ankita Ankita | SH 415 | Mo 6-8pm | ankita.a ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
| Julian Hirn | RY 285 | We 3:05-3:50pm; Th 3-4pm | hirn.j ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
| Indranil Jana | SH 415 | Mo 5:30-8:30pm | jana.i ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
| Samarth Parikh | WVF 114 | Fr 12:05-2:05pm | parikh.sam ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
| Charmik Sheth | INV 014 | We 3:40-5:50pm (+) | sheth.c ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
| Ian Smith | RI 160 | Mo 12-2pm | smith.ian ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
| Brian Vullo | KA 102 | Fr 6-8pm | vullo.b ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
This is an initial schedule, subject to revision as the semester progresses.
Assignments will frequently be due at 11:59pm on Monday.
| Week | Starts | Topics | Work Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 7 | Intro: Systems; C and ASM | - |
| 2 | Jan 14 | AMD64 Assembly; ASM: “Design Recipe” | HW01: Linux Setup & Hello Worlds |
| 3 | Jan 21 | Large ASM Example; Debugging ASM; | HW02: ASM, Pointers, Fun |
| 4 | Jan 28 | Processes & Memory; ASM: Syscalls, I/O, the heap | HW03: ASM Quicksort |
| 5 | Feb 4 | C: Basics, Arrays, Pointers; A Simple Tokenizer | HW04: ASM Matrix Transpose |
| 6 | Feb 11 | Syscalls: fork, exec, waitpid; Building a Shell & pipe | HW05: Shell Tokenizer |
| 7 | Feb 18 | read, write, proc table, vmem; shared mem & data races | CH1: Unix Shell |
| 8 | Feb 25 | semaphore locks & deadlock; threads and mutexes | HW06: Parallel Sort (Processes) |
| - | Mar 4 | spring break | - |
| 9 | Mar 11 | cond vars and atomics; malloc: free lists | HW07: Parallel Sort (Threads) |
| 10 | Mar 18 | malloc: optimizations & threads; modern allocators | HW08: Simple Memory Allocator |
| 11 | Mar 25 | OS Kernels; Looking at xv6 | CH2: Advanced Memory Allocator |
| 12 | Apr 1 | File Systems: FAT; File Systems: ext | HW09: Examining xv6 |
| 13 | Apr 7 | The FUSE API; Solutions for Concurrency | HW10: Simple FS |
| 14 | Apr 14 | Wrap Up | CH3: Advanced FS |
(+) One Lecture Weeks: Start, Thanksgiving, End
Recommended Readings by Week:
The textbook for this course is online:
We will also be referring to:
Percentages are approximate.
The number to letter mapping will be as follows:
95+ = A, 90+ = A-, 85+ = B+, 80+ = B, 75+ = B-, 70+ = C+, 65+ = C, 60+ = C-, 50+ = D, else = F
There may be a curve or scale applied to any assignment or the final grades, in either direction.
There’s a homework or challenge assignment due nearly every week. Assignments in this class is difficult and you are expected to get stuck. Start early so you have time to get unstuck.
Challenges are just like homework, except they’re harder, worth more points, and they are graded more harshly. You’ll want to start early and plan to spend a lot of time on them.
In order to learn the material in this class you must submit the assignments. If at any point you have three unexcused zero grades for past-due assignments you will fail the course.
If you fall behind on the course work for any reason, please come to the professor’s office hours to discuss how you can catch up.
For all assignments except the last challenge, late submissions will be penalized by 1% for each hour late.
For the final assignment, late submissions will not be accepted after the sun comes up and the TAs start grading.
Late Registration
If you register for the course late, you will have three days to complete each assignment until you are caught up with the rest of the class.
Homework and project grades will be posted on Bottlenose. If you think your work was graded incorrectly, you can challenge your grade through the following procedure:
First, go to the office hours of the course staff member who graded your work. If you can convince them that they made a concrete error in grading, they will fix it for you.
If the grader doesn’t agree that the grade was wrong, you can issue a formal grade challenge. This follows a variant of the “coaches challenge” procedure used in the NFL.
Here’s the procedure:
Students needing disability accommodations should visit the Disability Resource Center (DRC).
If you have been granted special accomodations either through the DRC or as a student athlete, let me know as soon as possible.
Copying code and submitting it without proper attribution is strictly prohibited in this class. This is plagiarism, which is a serious violation of academic integrity.
Details:
Lecture Notes
Lecture notes are not starter code, and should not be copied without attribution. As long as attribution is provided, there is no penalty for using code from the lecture notes.
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.
There is no penalty for copying small snippets of code (a couple of lines) with attribution as long as this code doesn’t significantly remove the intended challenge of the assignment. This should be in a comment above these lines clearly indicating the source (including author name and URL, if any).
If you copy a large amount of code with attribution, you won’t recieve credit for having completed that portion of the assignment, but there will be no further penalty. The attribution must be obvious and clearly indicate both which code it applies to and where it came from.
Penalty for Plagarism
First offense:
Avoid copying code if you can. If you’re looking at an example, understand what it does, type something similar that is appropriate to your program, and provide attribution. If you must copy code, put in the attribution immediately, every time or you will fail the course over what feels like a minor mistake.