This syllabus is subject to change based on specific class needs, especially the schedule. Significant deviations will be discussed in class. Individual exceptions to the policies and schedule are granted only in cases of true emergency. Please make arrangements with me if an emergency arises.
Introduces basic operating system concepts including virtualization, memory management, process and thread management, concurrency, file systems, and process scheduling. Students will also gain hands-on experience with the C programming language and Unix-based operating systems via programming projects.
Possible topics include:
| Processes | Concurrent Data Structures |
| CPU Scheduling | Concurrency Bugs |
| Virtual Memory | I/O Devices |
| Free Space Management | Redundant Disk Arrays |
| Locks | File Systems |
The required course textbook is:
It is available online at http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/.
Late assignments: You have each been allotted a total of 5 late days. You may apply these without any penalty to any project you see fit, with the exception that you may use at most 2 on any individual project. The whole point here is to give you some flexibility that allows for things like illnesses, long trips, and the like. I am unlikely to grant further extensions. Any projects turned in late will result in a 20% penalty per day.
Academic dishonesty: Monmouth College’s official policy on academic dishonesty can be found here. You are responsible for reading and complying with that policy.
In this course, any violation of the academic honesty policy will have varying consequences depending on the severity of the infraction as judged by the instructor. Minimally, a violation will result in an “F” or 0 points on the assignment in question. Additionally, the student’s course grade may be lowered by one letter grade. In severe cases, the student will be assigned a course grade of “F” and dismissed from the class. All cases of academic dishonesty must be reported to the Associate Dean who may decide to recommend further action to the Admissions and Academic Status Committee, including suspension or dismissal. It is assumed that students will educate themselves regarding what is considered to be academic dishonesty, so excuses or claims of ignorance will not mitigate the consequences of any violations
Collaboration: We encourage you to make use of the resources available to you – it is fine to seek help from a friend, tutor, instructor, internet, etc. However, copying of answers and any act worth of the label “cheating” is never permissible! In addition to listing your sources and collaborators, you should be producing your own writeup in your own words. By “your own words,” we mean you should be producing the text yourself, without some external aid. Verbatim copying of text is specifically disallowed, but so is taking a source and rearranging some phrases and changing some variable names to create a derivative version! Such behavior is definitely NOT “using your own words.” It does not matter if you helped contribute to this source text with others, since then you are still not the sole author of the text. The point of collaborating on an assignment is not to produce a jointly authored set of solutions, since that violates the course policies. Instead, it is to help you solve the problems, which sometimes involve a bit of creativity. After you have jointly come up with the ideas you need to solve the problems, though, you should part ways with your group and sit down to do the writing by yourself. I also advise against sharing the writeup you submit with others, since if someone else uses your text as a source for their own solution (with or without your permission), you will also be implicated in the violation of the academic integrity policy. In any case, if two nearly identical solutions are received, we have no way of tell which is the original, and the policy is to not award credit for either submission.
Electronic devices: Laptops, tablets, and phones may not be out during class, with one exception: devices required for a documented accessibility accommodation (see Disability Support Services below). Take notes on paper. This is not about note-taking styles — experience shows that even well-intentioned students cannot resist the pull of a screen, and an open laptop distracts the people sitting behind it as much as its owner. Some class days involve hands-on programming work; I will announce those in advance, and laptops are of course welcome then. Phones should be silenced and put away for the entire period.
General expectations: In short, I expect you to be respectful of others and take responsibility for your own learning. You are here to learn, so work hard and be professional.
Just attending class is not sufficient to truly learn the material. Read the text, use the resources available at Monmouth College, and go beyond the material.
If you miss class, you are responsible for everything covered on that day. College is, in some sense, your job. Take pride in creating quality work. Staple your assignments, label problems, and present your answers neatly and orderly.
Your job is to convince me that you have learned the material – show your work! Even if you do not know a particular answer, guide me through your thought process.
The weekly workload for this course will vary by student and over the semester, but on average should be about 12 hours per week. The follow table provides a rough estimate of the distribution of this time over different course components for a 16 week semester.
| Category | Amount | Final Grade Weight | Total Time | Time/Week (Hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 55 | 10% (Participation) | - | 2.5 |
| Reading Quizzes | 6–10 | 10% | - | - |
| Projects | 3–5 | 40% | 64 | 5.5 |
| Exam Study | - | - | 27 | 1.5 |
| Exams | 3 | 40% | - | - |
| Reading+Unstructured Study | - | - | 2.5 | |
| 12 |
Your participation grade is based on a variety of activities. During class I will often make use of the Socrative (https://socrative.com) app, so you’ll need to install this on your phones. Participating in Socrative questions and with in-class group activities is required for a decent participation grade; an A includes asking questions either in class or in office hours.
Your final grade is based on a weighted average of particular assignment categories, with weights shown above. You can estimate your current grade based on your scores and these weights. You may always visit the instructor outside of class to discuss your current standing.
This courses uses a standard grading scale. Assignments and final grades will not be curved except in rare cases when its deemed necessary by the instructor. Percentage grades translate to letter grades as follows:
| Score | Grade |
|---|---|
| 94–100 | A |
| 90–93 | A- |
| 88–89 | B+ |
| 82–87 | B |
| 80–81 | B- |
| 78–79 | C+ |
| 72–77 | C |
| 70–71 | C- |
| 68–69 | D+ |
| 62–67 | D |
| 60–61 | D- |
| 0–59 | F |
You are always welcome to challenge a grade that you feel is unfair or calculated incorrectly. Mistakes made in your favor will never be corrected to lower your grade. Mistakes made not in your favor will be corrected. Basically, after the initial grading your score can only go up as the result of a challenge*.
You are always welcome to challenge a grade that you feel is unfair or calculated incorrectly. Mistakes made in your favor will never be corrected to lower your grade. Mistakes made not in your favor will be corrected. Basically, after the initial grading your score can only go up as the result of a challenge.
The following tentative calendar should give you a feel for how work is distributed throughout the semester. Assignments and events are listed in the week they are due or when they occur. This calendar is subject to change based on the circumstances of the course.
| Date | Topic | Assignment |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 08/26 (Week 1) | Operating Systems Overview | OSTEP 0, 1, 2 |
| Fri 08/28 | C Review | Tutorial, Project 1 out |
| Mon 08/31 (Week 2) | More C Exercises | |
| Wed 09/02 | CPU Virtualization: Limited Direct Execution | 3,4 |
| Fri 09/04 | Project 1 Questions; fork() | 5, 6 |
| (Mon 09/07) (Week 3) | (Labor Day – No Classes) | |
| Wed 09/09 | Basic Scheduling Policies | 7, Project 1 due at 1:00 PM |
| Fri 09/11 | Project 1 Solutions | |
| Mon 09/14 (Week 4) | More Sched. Algs, MLFQ | 8, Project 2 out |
| Wed 09/16 | Finish MLFQ, Lottery Scheduling | 9, 11 |
| Fri 09/18 | Memory Virtualization | 12, 13, 14 |
| Mon 09/21 (Week 5) | Translation, Segmentation | 15, 16 |
| Wed 09/23 | Lab Day: Project 2 | |
| Fri 09/25 | Project 2 Questions | |
| Mon 09/28 (Week 6) | Intro to Paging | 18 |
| Wed 09/30 | (slack) | |
| Fri 10/02 | TLBs | 19, Project 2 due at 1:00 PM |
| Mon 10/05 (Week 7) | Multi-level Page Tables | 20 |
| Wed 10/07 | Project 2 Solutions | |
| Fri 10/09 | Swapping, Replacement Policies | 21, 22 |
| Mon 10/12 (Week 8) | Exam Review | 23, 24 |
| Wed 10/14 | Exam 1 | |
| (Fri 10/16) | (Fall Break) | |
| Mon 10/19 (Week 9) | Exam Solutions; Project 3 | 25, 26, Project 3 out |
| Wed 10/21 | Intro to Concurrency, Thread API and Locks | 27 |
| Fri 10/23 | Concurrent Data Structures, Building Locks | 28, 29 |
| Mon 10/26 (Week 10) | Ticket Locks | |
| Wed 10/28 | Locks with Queues | 30 |
| Fri 10/30 | Condition Variables | |
| Mon 11/02 (Week 11) | Producer/Consumer | |
| Wed 11/04 | Semaphores | 31 |
| Fri 11/06 | Lab Day: Project 3 | |
| Mon 11/09 (Week 12) | Project 3 Questions/Debug | |
| Wed 11/11 | Concurrency Bugs | 32, 34, Exam 2 (take-home) out |
| Fri 11/13 | I/O Devices | 35, 36 |
| Mon 11/16 (Week 13) | Disk Scheduling | 37 |
| Wed 11/18 | RAID | 38, Project 3 due at midnight |
| Fri 11/20 | File Systems | 39, Project 4 out |
| Mon 11/23 (Week 14) | File System Implementation (VSFS) | 40, Exam 2 due at midnight |
| (Wed 11/25) | (Thanksgiving Break) | |
| (Fri 11/27) | (Thanksgiving Break) | |
| Mon 11/30 (Week 15) | Fast File System (FFS) | 41 |
| Wed 12/02 | Journaling | 42 |
| Fri 12/04 | Project 4 Questions | RQ: You MUST bring a question about the project! |
| Mon 12/07 (Week 16) | Project 4 Questions | RQ: You MUST bring a question about YOUR code! |
| Wed 12/09 | Exam Review | Project 4 due at midnight |
| Sat 12/12 8:00 AM–11:00 AM | Exam 3 (Final) |
The Academic Support Office offers free resources to assist Monmouth College students with their academic success. Programs include supplemental instruction for difficult classes, drop-in and appointment tutoring, and individual academic coaching. The office is here to help students excel academically, since everyone can work toward better grades, study skills, and time management. Please email succeed@monmouthcollege.edu for assistance.
If you need course adaptions or accommodations because of a disability, please make an appointment with the Accessibility Services Office (ASO) (access@monmouthcollege.edu 309-457-2257) as soon as possible. The accessibility of this course for every learner is important to me. If at any time you experience a barrier to learning, please bring it to my attention and I will do my best to address it.
Office of Student Well-Being & Student Health Center: Your well-being is crucial to your academic success and personal growth. That is why our campus provides free resources to support your physical and mental health needs. If you would like schedule an appointment for counseling or need further health care assistance, please reach out to the Office of Student Well-Being at wellness@monmouthcollege.edu.
Student Health Center: Hours: M-F, 9am-1pm Location: McMichael Residence Hall, Lower level Call: 309-536-6055 Email: healthcenter@monmouthcollege.edu
Counseling Services: Hours: M-F 9am-4:30pm Location: CSB 393, Administrative Area Call: 309-457-2316 Email: wellness@monmouthcollege.edu
TimelyCare: 24/7 free virtual access to medical and mental health care anytime. Visit: timelycare.com/monmouthcollege