CSCI 4534 - Operating Systems

Syllabus

Course home page

Instructor

If you have any questions or comments, you should first try to reach the instructor during office hours, preferably in person. Email is monitored infrequently, so it should be used primarily to submit assignments (see below) or as a last resort.

Description

Objectives

• Introduce basic principles of operating system design.

• Provide the opportunity to develop basic multi-processing applications with focus on operating system design issues.

• Provide the opportunity to develop basic simulators of common operating system functions, such as memory or RAID management.

• Give students enough background to be able to pursue further studies of operating systems at a research level, or start a career in design and implementation of operating system kernels or drivers.

• The lecture schedule covers a broad spectrum of OS issues.

• Exercises encourage the students to digest the theoretical material, while programming tasks solidify the students' practical skills.

Prerequisites

• Java (CSCI 3134)
• Computer organization and assembly language (CSCI 3331)
• Data structures (CSCI 5042)

Textbook

The above link takes you to the book's main website, where you can also find a listing of corrections to the book (also local copy as of February 2004).

Academic honesty

The Honesty Code of UHCL states: I will be honest in all my academic activities and will not tolerate dishonesty.

Because honesty and integrity are such important factors, you should be aware that failure to perform within the bounds of these ethical standards is sufficient grounds to receive a course grade "F" and be recommended for suspension.

Disability services

Coursework

• All coursework should be the sole work of each student; these are not group projects (unless stated otherwise).

• Assignments comprise regular exercises, as well as programming tasks. All assignments should be submitted in electronic form. The text portion of the assignment should be a plain ASCII text file viewable via Notepad or equivalent text editor. All programming tasks should compile and run under JDK 1.4.2_03 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. For details on submitting the code for programming tasks, see below.

• In your answers to regular exercises, proper use of English influences your grade as unclear responses do not receive full marks. Your code should also be adequately commented in good English. Comments should not point out the obvious (e.g. This statement sets c=0) but rather the algorithmic intent of the code (e.g. Initialize the counters). Variable and method names should be meaningful (but not too long), code should be well-indented, and, in general, your code should be well-written. Note that excessive comments are as bad as no comments because they clutter up the code.

• The final examination is in class, and comprises only regular exercises, without programming tasks. As with assignments, proper use of English influences your grade. The final examination is an open-book one, which means you can refer to your textbook at any time during the test. Also, the lecture slides will be available for your use during the test on the classroom computer; please use the computer one student at a time. You may not use your own laptop during the test.

• All assignments are due 5 minutes after class starts. Late assignments are not accepted, except for the grace policy described next.

• The grace policy is designed to accomodate occasional emergencies. You are given two grace days days that you may use only for assignments 1, 2, or 3. Grace days are the same as 24-hour calendar days provided you only include days on which a lecture takes place. This means that, if you cannot turn in an assignment on the class day that it is due, you can use one grace day and turn it in on the following class day (which gives you two late calendar days in the week, and three during the weekend); or use both of your grace days on the same assignment and turn it in on the second class day after the due date. Of course, you can use one grace day on one assignment, and another grace day on another assignment. In other words, you can use your grace days however you wish, without asking for permission in advance. However, there are no exceptions whatsoever if you turn in an assignment past its due date (as adjusted for your remaining grace days): it will not be accepted, and you will get a 0.

• Programming tasks should be submitted as a single zip or jar file per task. These archives can be turned in as either email attachments to the instructor's email, or as files on a floppy disk (remember to write your name on the floppy disk). If an assignment calls for two tasks, you should submit one archive file for each. All tasks for an assignment should be emailed together, or placed on a single floppy: do not send more than one email or submit more than one floppy disk. The text portion of the assignment should also be an attachment to the same email, or stored in the same floppy. Each archive should contain all files necessary to compile and run your task, except those files which we provided to you.
  • If your archive is corrupted, or
  • if your code does not compile, or
  • if your code does not run,
  you get a 0 for the task.

• The Academic Honesty policy does not imply total lack of cooperation. Students are encouraged to help each other understand the concepts taught in class, form study groups, or seek out each other's assistance in understanding the requirements and background of course assignments. However, students should not cooperate in carrying out their assignments, nor cooperate during examinations. Similarly, students are encouraged to use outside resources, such as libraries or the Internet, while studying course material and researching algorithms for use in assignments. However, downloading or copying code from such sources for inclusion in assignments is a violation of the Academic Honesty policy; all code and text in assignments should be the original work of the student.

Grading

• Your course grade is the weighted average of all four assignments and the final exam, each having a weight of 20%. All coursework is graded on a 0-100 scale. Assignment grades over 100 are possible if the student chooses to complete optional extra credit work, as specified in each assignment.

• Your course grade is relative to the performance of other students, in a manner that benefits good students without hurting bad ones. In other words, the student who has the highest weighted average receives an "A+", regardless of how is high her actual score is. However, the worst student in the class does not necessarily get an "F"; as long as her score is over 50, she gets a grade higher than "F".

Lectures and classroom rules

Additional information:

• There will be two 10-minute breaks during each lecture.

• Attendance is required, unless otherwise stated in the course schedule below.

• Arrive in the classroom on time to avoid disrupting the class. Similarly, turn off all cell phones and pagers before the class begins, and keep them off during the lecture.

• Refrain from smoking inside the classroom, even during the breaks.

• Students are strongly encouraged to ask questions during class, even if this requires interrupting the instructor's presentation.

• Students are encouraged to focus on understanding the lecture material, rather than copying everything down. Accordingly, all slides used during lecture are available on-line after the lecture. However, students may wish to jot down any explanatory remarks, clarifications, and answers to questions.

Course schedule

Date	Lecture material	Slides	Reading (Chapters)	Assignments	Notes
Friday, March 5	Introduction, computer/operating system structures		1, 2, 3
Monday, March 8	Processes, threads		4, 5	Assignment 1 handed out
Wednesday, March 10	CPU scheduling		6
Friday, March 12	The life of a typical US startup company from inception to (hopefully) profits, with special focus on the participation of non-US citizens; Q&A by Christine Nguyen Lerios on life in Texas			Assignment 1 due	Due to TOEFL and GRE tests, attending this lecture is optional; the material covered is not essential to completing coursework.
Monday, March 15	Memory management		9
Wednesday, March 17	Virtual memory		10	Assignment 2 handed out
Friday, March 19	Process synchronization		7
Monday, March 22	Process synchronization		7	Assignment 2 due Assignment 3 handed out
Wednesday, March 24	Deadlocks		8
Friday, March 26	File-system interface and implementation		11, 12, 14 (pp 505-512)	Assignment 4 handed out
Monday, March 29	Protection and security		18, 19	Assignment 3 due
Wednesday, March 31	16:00-18:00 Linux 18:00-20:00 Windows 2000		20, 21		The lecture will be given by the students as part of assignment 4; friends, mentors, co-workers are invited.
Friday, April 2				Assignment 4 due	Open-book final examination covering all chapters listed above except 20, 21