CSE 221

Graduate Operating Systems

Instructor: Geoff Voelker (voelker@cs.ucsd.edu)
Office: AP&M 5131
Phone: 822-3323
Office hours: M 1:30pm-2:30pm, W 11am-12:00pm (or by appointment)

Course Objectives

The purpose of this course is to teach computer software system structures from a design point of view. We will look at different structuring techniques, and we will examine their usage in both important historical systems and in modern systems.

In addition to learning about different system structures and different operating systems, you should learn:

• how to read a research paper in an objective manner;
• how to write a review of a research paper;
• how to do a literature search in a given system topic as the first step of research.

Reading List

We will be reading and discussing two papers each class period:

• Reading list and schedule.

Class Participation

The structure of this class is unusual in that there are no lectures or presentations during the class period. Instead, we will discuss research papers that we will have all read before each class period. I will lead discussions by asking questions of students at random in class. Note that your answers to these questions form a significant portion of your overall grade, so it is important that you both show up to class as well as read the papers carefully.

Because of the unusual format of this class, I will not grade you on class participation during the first two weeks of class.

Paper Evaluations

One goal of the course is to improve your skill at evaluating research papers. Towards this end, I ask that you submit short evaluations of the papers that we will discuss before each class period. Writing the evaluations will be excellent preparation for answering questions in class.

The evaluations can be short (1/2 page). Use the following questions as a guideline:

• Research problem (2-3 sentences)
  • What problem did the paper address?
  • Why is the problem interesting/important?
  • How is it different from previous work?
• What is the approach used to solve the problem?
• How does the paper evaluate its approach?
  • What is the methodology?
  • What questions do they try to answer?
  • Does their methodology and analysis successfully answer the questions?
• What you learned from the paper.
• What did you learn from reading the paper?
• What is your opinion of the paper?
• Did the paper suggest any future work, or give you any ideas for new problems or a different approach for the same problem?

Evaluations for the papers being discussed in class are due by 8am of the day of the class. Please email the evaluations to me at voelker@cs.ucsd.edu. I will collect them and make them available for the rest of the class.

Project

You will work on a group project for the course:

• Project description
• Project reports

Grading

• Class participation -- 40%
• Paper evaluations -- 20%
• Project -- 40%