This course covers essential topics in the design and implementation of operating systems. A list of topics appears in the following table, along with the corresponding readings in the course textbook, which is:
William Stallings, Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles, 5th edition, Prentice Hall, 2005.
| Topic | Reading |
| Introduction to OS; Background on Computer Organization | chs. 1-2 |
| Processes and Threads | chs. 3-4 |
| Synchronization, Deadlock | chs. 5 except Message Passing (section 5.6), Appendix A.1 (only Peterson's Alg., not Dekker's Alg), 6.1-6.6 |
| Memory Management | chs. 7-8 |
| Processor Scheduling | ch. 9 |
| I/O, Filesystems | chs. 11-12 (except Disk Scheduling Policies, pp. 496-501) |
| Protection | 16.1-16.2 |
| Distributed Filesystems | see below |
Unfortunately, the course textbook does not have a chapter on Distributed Filesystems. For this topic, you should refer to the chapter on Distributed Filesystems in any reasonably recent edition of either of the following textbooks, both of which are available in the Computer Science Library: Silberschatz and Galvin, Operating System Concepts; Coulouris, Dollimore and Kindberg, Distributed Systems.
For information about how this course relates to the objectives of the
Computer Science B.S. program, please see the entry for CSE306 in the
Mapping of Program Objectives to Course Objectives.
Meeting Time and Place:
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:20pm-3:40pm. Light Engineering 152.
Teaching Assistant: Jiawu Chen
The Discussion Forum contains announcements and discussion. Read it
regularly, and post your questions (and answers to other people's
questions) there.
I occasionally use Blackboard's email feature to send urgent
announcements, so please set your preferred email address in Blackboard.
Note: All of the software mentioned below is free.
The project descriptions are available in Blackboard under Assignments.
Here are the source code and documentation: Nachos-SBU
You will need to use a cross-compiler (see the proj2 description for
details). The cross-compiler is available in the UG Lab in
There is also a cross-compiler
that runs on Windows. To use it, you must also download cygwin1.dll and put it in a directory in your PATH.
You might want to get an entire Cygwin distribution; it's free and
contains lots of useful stuff (such as
There is also a cross-compiler
that runs on Linux and a
cross-compiler
that runs on Mac OS X.
The official Java implementation for this course (i.e., the one
used during grading) is Sun JDK 1.5.0
(also called 5.0). It is installed in the UnderGrad Lab. You may use
other compilers and run-time environments during development, but you
should ensure that your code compiles and runs under Sun JDK 1.5.0
before submitting it.
Learning to use a debugger is well worth the small initial investment
of time. Options include debuggers built into an IDE, such as Eclipse or Netbeans, or
a stand-alone (graphical) debugger, such as
JSwat.
You might also want:
Exams. During exams, you may use the course textbook, your own
notes, handouts that were distributed in class or posted on the course
web sites (other than the Nachos code), and a dictionary. You may not
bring someone else's notes or a mechanical reproduction of all or part
thereof. You may not bring a different textbook or a mechanical
reproduction of all or part thereof.
Grading. Each assignment is graded relative to some maximum
number of points (e.g., 20). The maximum number of points is unrelated
to the weight of the assignment in the course grade. Each score is
normalized into a number between zero and one (e.g., 19/20 -> 0.95) and
then multiplied by the weight of the assignment to obtain a weighted
score. Course grades are based primarily on the sum of the weighted
scores.
Grading of Teamwork. Each project assignment will receive a
score reflecting the quality of the work. At the end of the semester,
each team member's score for that assignment will be computed by
multiplying that score by an individual contribution factor (ICF) that
reflects the team member's overall contribution to the team effort for
the entire semester. Ideally, every team member will contribute
equally to the overall effort. In that case, every team member's ICF
is 1, and every team member receives the same scores for all projects.
If some team member's overall contribution was, for example, only 90%
of his or her fair share, then that team member's score for each
project will be computed by multiplying the original score for the
project by that team member's ICF of 0.9. A team member who
contributes more than his or her fair share will have an ICF larger
than 1. We will evaluate each team member's contribution using all
available information, including the summary of contributions in the
README of each project assignment.
You are responsible for ensuring that you contribute to the team
effort. If you believe that your teammate is preventing you from
contributing, discuss the situation with the instructor immediately.
If you wait until near the end of the project, it will be too late to
remedy the situation, and your ICF will be low.
Integrity. All students are expected to follow CEAS's policies
governing academic dishonesty. Suspected academic dishonesty will
be reported to CEAS's Committee on Academic Standing and Appeals
(CASA). If you submit anything that includes any material created by
other people, your submission must clearly indicate the sources of all
such material. Failure to indicate the sources will be treated as
plagiarism. Discussing assignments with other people is fine.
However, each person must write his or her own submission
independently. Showing your own work to other students, giving it to
them, or making it accessible to them (e.g., by making the files
world-readable, intentionally or through carelessness) will be treated
as academic dishonesty.
Disabilities. If you have a physical, psychological, medical or
learning disability that may impact on your ability to carry out
assigned course work, I would urge that you contact the staff in the
Center
for Disability Support Services (DSS) in the ECC Bldg,
632-6748/TDD. DSS will review your concerns and determine, with you,
what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information
and documentation of disability is confidential.
Assignments that do not involve programming should be submitted on
paper in class on the due date, unless the assignment specifies
otherwise. Assignments submitted after the end of class on the due
date are late and receive a -3% penalty. Assignments submitted the
next day receive a -6% penalty, and so on.
Programming assignments are due at 11:59pm on the due date and should
be submitted via Blackboard. Click on Assignments (in the menu on the
left), click on View/Complete, attach a zip file containing your
assignment, and then click on Submit.
Course Work
The numbers of assignments are tentative.
Administrative Info
Instructor's Office Hours: Mon and Wed, 10am-11am, and by appointment and chance.
Credits: 3
TA's Office Hours: Fri, 3:30pm-4:30pm, and by appointment. TA
Desk 5 in Computer Science 1207
Blackboard
Project: Nachos
~cse306/mips-gcc/.
make and
ssh, mentioned below).
You will need some kind of build tool for Nachos. Nachos is
already configured for building with "make". You can use another
build tool (e.g., one built into a Java IDE) but you are on your
own. Note: GNU Make is included with cygwin. It is available
separately from the above link, in case you use Windows and don't
get cygwin (but why wouldn't you?).
Use of CVS is not required but is definitely encouraged. It will
help you back up to a previous version of your code, in case you
make a mistake. CVS is also included with cygwin.
Remote access to the UG Lab is by SSH. OpenSSH, included with
Cygwin, also works fine.
Policies
Submission of Assignments
Grading Weights (Tentative)
hw1 5 hw2 5 hw3 5 proj1 5 proj2 15 proj3 13 proj4 13 midterm1 12 midterm2 12 final 15 TOTAL 100