COMPSCI 577: Operating Systems Design and Implementation Syllabus

Spring 2020 Syllabus and Course Information

• Instructor: Prashant Shenoy
  Office: Room A333, LGRC
  Office Hours: Thu 1:30-2:30, Room A333, or by appointment
  Phone: (413) 577 0850
  Fax: (413) 545 1249
  Email: shenoy [at] cs.umass.edu
  

• Course Staff
  Ahmed Ali-Eldin (Secondary Instructor)
  Walid Abdelrahman (Teaching Assistant)
  
  Email: ahmeda [at] cs.umass.edu and whanafy [at] cs.umass.edu
  Office hours: Monday and Friday from 4-5 on LGRT T223
  

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• Contents: This course will expose students to advanced concepts in operating system design and implementation through an in-depth study of operating system internals. The course will be based on an Unix-like operating system and will comprise of lectures and hands-on programming assignments that cover the design and implementation of OS system calls, device drivers, CPU scheduling, memory management, file systems. We will also cover advanced topics such as virtualization and cluster scheduling, time permitting. Students who complete this course will gain an appreciation of how key OS abstractions and concepts are implemented in practice, become proficient in the design and implementation of complex system software and acquire the skills to develop OS kernel components (e,g, OS modules, drivers, filesystems) or modify OS components (e.g. VM, schedulers).

  A detailed list of course goals, objectives, and learning outcomes is described on the Course Outcomes page.

• Prerequisites: Since OS kernels are written in C, students are expected to be proficient in the C programming language (or learn C quickly). An undergraduate course on operating systems (equivalent to COMPSCI 377) is also a prerequisite.

• Course Grade
  
  • Programming assignments: 5-6 programming assignments, each 8-10% of the final grade, and overall 50% of the final grade
  • Final Project 25% of the final grade
  • Midterm exam 20% of the final grade (there is no final exam for the class)
  • Class participation/piazza discussions/occasional quizzes: 5% of the final grade

• Textbook and Course Materials There is no required textbook for this class. One suggested book is Operating Systems Design and Implementation, 3^rd Edition by Tannenbaum and Woodhull. This book focuses on older version of Minix but is still useful as a reference.

  We will also use a research papers, manuals, and material from the Internet to supplment course slides/notes. These materials will be made available online on the course web page; some material may be placed on reserve in the Physical Sciences library if needed.

• Lectures Videos and Notes Lectures will be recorded on a best-effort basis and made available through the class YouTube channel. Class scribes will take lecture notes and make them available to entire class. A signup sheet will be made available to signup as a scribe during the first week of class.

• Course home page: All course materials (handouts, lecture notes, lecture audio / video homeworks, assignments and solutions) will be posted on the course home page at http://lass.cs.umass.edu/~shenoy/courses/577
  As the semester goes along, the site will fill up with lots of useful other information, pointers to other sites, etc. Please make sure you check out and use this site frequently.
  

• Github Classroom: We will use github classroom to handout programming assignments and for students to turn in their code. The course staff will add you to github classroom.

• Piazza: We will use a Piazza discussion board for online discussions on course topics and programming assignments. You need to enroll for the class discussion board at the following URL: http://piazza.com/umass/spring2020/compsci577

• Class sections: Two sections of this class are being offered: a graduate and an undergraduate section. Students should enroll in the appropriate section depending on their student status. All students, regardless of the section, will be expected to do the same homeworks, assignments, and exams.

• Class participation I strongly encourage participation in the class through Q&A and discussion. This can be done in two ways: by asking/answering questions or participating in discussions in the lectures or piazza discussion forums. A small portion of the grade is allocated for class participation.

• Late Policy Sometimes unexpected events make it difficult to submit your work on time. For this reason we will allow for a total of three late days to each student group for late submissions. Please try to save some of your late days for the later part of the semester when schedules become busy.

  Extension requests (other than the use of free late days) should be made before the original due date. Extensions will only be granted for medical or personal emergencies. All extension requests must be accompanied by written verification, for example a written note from your doctor.

• Academic honesty policy All students are expected to strictly abide by the UMass honesty policy, which is described in detail here: http://www.umass.edu/honesty/ Violation will result in a zero grade on the project in question, probable failure in the course, and initiation of the formal procedures of the University.

• Laptops, tablets, phones and electronic device policy Cell phones should be switched off or put on slient alert during class lectures. Texting or using phones for other purposes (e.g, email, social media, web browsing) during class is strictly prohibited.

  Laptops and tablets are normally NOT permitted during class lectures. However, since this class emphasis hands-on work, we will permit use of laptops ONLY for in-class programming work. You should bring your laptop to class, but it should be used only when explicitly requested by the instructor for hands-on classroom work. Laptops and tablets should not be used at any other time during a lecture.

  Any student with an electronic device that disrupts the class or violates this policy will lose two (2) points from their final grade.