CSE 120: Principles of Computer Operating Systems
Fall 2015
- Instructor
-
Geoffrey M. Voelker
(voelker@cs.ucsd.edu)
CSE 3108
(858) 822-3323
- Lectures
-
Tu/Th 8–9:20am
Center Hall 115
- Teaching Assistants
-
Daniel Knapp
(dknapp@cs.ucsd.edu)
Zach Meyer (ztmeyer@cs.ucsd.edu)
Manindra Moharana (mmoharana@cs.ucsd.edu)
Derrick Smith (des003@cs.ucsd.edu)
Kacy (kacyrayespinoza@gmail.com)
- Discussion Sections
-
Wed 7–7:50pm in
Center Hall 119
Fri 8–8:50am in Pepper Canyon 109
- Office and Lab Hours
- Voelker (All Topics): Mon 3–4pm, Wed 4–5pm (CSE 3108)
Meyer (Homework): Wed 11am–1pm, 4pm–6pm (B240A)
Moharana (Projects): Tue 4pm–6pm, Thu 1:30pm–3:30pm (B240)
Knapp (Projects): Fri 10am–12pm, 1pm–3pm (B240)
Kacy (Projects): Mon 11:20am–1:20pm (B220), Wed 11:20am–1:20pm (B220), Fri 10am–12pm (B240), Sat 10am–12pm (B240)Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 11:20am-1:20pm
Kacy (B220)11am-1pm
Meyer (B240A)10am-12pm
Knapp (B240)10am-12pm
Kacy (B240)11:20am-1:20pm
Kacy (B220)1:30pm-3:30pm
Moharana (B240)10am-12pm
Kacy (B240)3-4pm
Voelker (3108)4-6pm
Moharana (B240)4-5pm
Voelker (3108)1-3pm
Knapp (B240)4-6pm
Meyer (B240) - Labs
- CSE basement
- Textbook
-
Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau
Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces
Version 0.90, March 2015 (Available free online!) - Discussion Board
- Piazza
Course Objectives
This course covers the principles of operating systems. It emphasizes the basic concepts of OS kernel organization and structure, processes and threads, concurrency and synchronization, memory management, file systems, and communication. It is also a project course, providing essential experience in programming with concurrency, implementing and unmasking abstractions, working within an existing complex system, and collaborating with other students in a group effort.
Course Organization
The course is organized as a series of lectures by the instructor, discussion sections by the TAs, reading, homework, and project assignments, and exams:
- Lectures: The lectures present the core of the material.
- Sections: The discussion sections are given by the TAs to answer questions about the lecture, textbook readings, homework assignments, and project assignments.
- Readings: The readings in the textbook provide preparation and a reference for the lectures. Note, however, that they are not a substitute for the lectures.
- Homeworks: There are approximately four homework assignments with questions taken from the textbook and other materials. The homework assignments reinforce the readings and lectures.
- Projects: There are three programming projects, all using the Nachos instructional operating system.
- Exams: There are two exams, a midterm exam in the middle of the quarter and a final exam at the end of the quarter. The exams will cover the material presented in lecture, the homeworks, and the projects. You can use both sides of one 8.5x11" page of notes to assist you during the exams.
Homework
Homeworks are due at the beginning of class on the day specified. We will reduce homework grades by 20% for each day that they are late (end of class is considered late). You must hand in a hardcopy of your homework; disagreements about the contents of emailed homeworks have caused too much grief in the past. (Plus, it takes far too long to print hundreds of homeworks...)
- Homework 1 (Out 9/29, In 10/8)
- Homework 2 (Out 10/8, In 10/22)
- Homework 3 (Out 11/3, In 11/19)
- Homework 4 (Out 11/20, In 12/3)
I encourage you to collaborate on the homeworks: You can learn a lot from your fellow students. However, there can be a fine line between collaboration and cheating. Collaboration consists of discussing problems with other students and independently writing your own answers to the problems based upon those discussions; as a rule of thumb, you should be able to discuss a homework problem in the library with others, go home, and then write up your answer to the problem on your own. Cheating consists of looking at other student's homeworks and copying the answers, looking at past homeworks and/or solutions from previous versions of the class, searching on the Web, etc. The consequences of cheating will correspond to the severity (e.g., failure of the assignment, failure of the course). Cheating causes many problems for all of us — don't do it, and save us all the grief.
The academic honesty guidelines outlined by Charles Elkan apply to this course.
Projects
The course has one tutorial project and three programming projects using the Nachos instructional operating system. We will be coordinating the projects across both sections of CSE 120 this quarter:
Exams
The course has two exams, a midterm and a final. The midterm will cover the first half of the class, and the final will cover the material for the entire quarter. Below are sample exams to help you study.Discussion Sections
Discussion sections answer questions about the lectures, homeworks, projects, and programming environment. They may also supplement the lectures with additional material.
Grading
Your grade for the course will be based on your performance on the homeworks, midterm and final exams, and the three projects using the following weights:
- Homeworks: 15%
- Midterm: 25%
- Final: 30%
- Projects: 30%
Course Schedule
The following table outlines the schedule for the course. We will update it as the quarter progresses.
Supplemental Reading
The supplemental readings include primary sources and in-depth supplements for concepts in the class. Supplemental reading is for your own interest — the readings are not required, nor will you be tested on the material. Note that some of the links to the documents point to the ACM Digital Library. UCSD has a subscription to the ACM Digital Library, so you will need to use a web browser on campus to access them.- The seminal paper on semaphores:
E. W. Dijkstra, The Structure of the 'THE'-Multiprogramming System, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 11, No. 5, May 1968, pp. 341-346.
(Additional historical background on semaphores in Wikipedia)
- The seminal paper on Unix:
D. M. Ritchie and K. Thompson, The UNIX Time-Sharing System, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 17, No. 7, July 1974, pp. 365-375.
- The seminal paper on monitors:
C. A. R. Hoare, Monitors: An Operating System Structuring Concept, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 17, No. 10, October, 1974, pp. 549-557.
- Practical guides to programming with threads on Unix:
Blaise Barney, POSIX Threads Programming, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Andrew D. Birrell, An Introduction to Programming with Threads, DEC SRC Research Report 35, January 6, 1989.