Spring 2020
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 |
---|---|---|
02 | SH 105 | 1:35pm-3:15pm Tu/Fr |
03 | INV 019 | 3:25pm-5:05pm Tu/Fr |
Prof Alden Jackson is also offering a section of the course. His section will vary somewhat in assignments and topics.
Name | Location | Hours | |
---|---|---|---|
Nat Tuck | NI 132 E | We 1:30-2:30pm; Fr 5:30-6:30pm | ntuck ⚓ ccs.neu.edu |
Kaylin Devchand | HS 118 | Mo 6-8pm | devchand.k ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
Alec Ge | RY 153 | Su 1-3pm | ge.a ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
Sneh Gurdasani | SL 009 | Mo 11am-1pm | gurdasani.s ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
Madhur Jain** | RY 154* | Sa 10am-noon | jain.madh ⚓ husky.neu.edu |
This is an initial schedule, subject to revision as the semester progresses.
Assignments will frequently be due at 11:59pm on Tuesday.
Week | Starts | Topics | Work Due |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jan 6 | Intro: Systems; Intro: Assembly | - |
2 | Jan 13 | ASM: “Design Recipe”; Large ASM Example; | HW01: Linux Setup & Hello Worlds |
3 | Jan 20 | ASM: Syscalls, I/O, the heap; Processes & Memory | HW02: ASM, Pointers, Funs |
4 | Jan 27 | C: Arrays & Pointers; C: Data Structures; | HW03: ASM Sort |
5 | Feb 3 | A Simple Tokenizer; Syscalls: fork, exec, waitpid; | HW04: C Data Structures |
6 | Feb 10 | Building a Shell & pipe; read, write, proc table, vmem; | HW05: Shell Tokenizer |
7 | Feb 17 | shared mem & data races; semaphore locks & deadlock; | CH1: Unix Shell |
8 | Feb 24 | threads and mutexes; cond vars and atomics | HW06: Parallel Sort (Processes) |
- | Mar 2 | Spring Break | - |
9 | Mar 9 | malloc: free lists; malloc: optimizations & threads; | HW07: Parallel Sort (Threads) |
10 | Mar 16 | Garbage Collection; OS Kernels | HW08: Simple Memory Allocator |
11 | Mar 23 | Looking at xv6; Disk Hardware | CH2: Advanced Memory Allocator |
12 | Mar 30 | File Systems: FAT; File Systems: ext | HW09: Examining xv6 |
13 | Apr 6 | The FUSE API; Concurrency solutions | HW10: Simple FS |
14 | Apr 13 | Wrap Up; Last class Tuesday | CH3: Advanced FS |
The textbook for this course is online:
Recommended Readings by Week:
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 assignments that have been graded 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 Inkfish. If you think your work was graded incorrectly, you can challenge your grade through the following process:
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 formally contest your grade with the professor. This follows a variant of the “coaches challenge” procedure used in the NFL.
Here’s the formal challenge 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.
Providing solution code to other students is also strictly prohibited.
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 impact 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.
Posting Code on the Web
Penalty for Plagarism or Providing Solution Code
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.