CS 6210 Logistics
Advanced Operating Systems
Spring 2007

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Logistics

Assignments

Reading

Lectures

• Instructor: Kishore Ramachandran (rama@cc.gatech.edu)
• Office: Klaus 2402
• Office hours: TBD
• TA #1: Dave Lillethun ( - please include the number 6210 in the email subject)
• Office: Embedded and Pervasive Lab (Klaus 2201) - office hours will be held in the alcove just outside the lab
• Office hours: Mon 1-2:30pm, Thurs 11am-Noon, or by appointment
• TA #2: Namgeun Jeong
• Office: Embedded and Pervasive Lab (Klaus 2201)
• Swiki: http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu/cs6210-sp07
• Newsgroup: git.cc.class.cs6210

Course Description

CS 6210 (Advanced Operating Systems) is a graduate level course that covers in detail many advanced topics in operating system design and implementation. It starts with topics such as operating systems structuring, multithreading and synchronization and then moves on to systems issues in parallel and distributed computing systems. There is no textbook for this course. Rather, we will read and discuss a number of important research papers related to these topics. For each paper that is covered in class , students are expected to gain a solid understanding of the problem that is addressed by the paper, and the solution proposed by the authors. Papers listed under "Required Background" will be assigned for self study. Students must carefully read the self study papers because the understanding of their content may be essential for the papers that will be covered in class. Papers listed under "Optional Readings are for reference only. These papers will cover topics that extend or supplement the material in papers that are covered in class. Students will be expected to have some understanding of the results in these papers but will not be tested on them.

Prerequisites

• CS4210 or equivalent undergraduate OS course. A good understanding of the concepts in a standard textbook such as Operating Systems Concepts, Silberschatz and Galvin (or its equivalent) will be assumed in CS 6210.
• Good knowledge of UNIX and C programming.
• CS4210's prerequisites or equivalents (such CS 2200).

Grading

7% class participation (breakdown below)
3% pre-lab
40% projects (10% each)
25% midterm (Thursday, March 1)
25% final (Monday, April 30, 6:00-9:00pm)

Participation

Your class participation grade is composed of four main parts:

• Regular attendance to and participation in the class lectures. (worth 2%)
• An index card with your name, picture and something unique about yourself (worth 1%)
• A summary of one of the papers on the reading list (approximately one page; sign up on the swiki). Paper summaries are due by the end of the section in which the paper appears. In other words, if you are covering an "OS Structures" paper, you should post your summary before the first lecture on "Communication in Shared Memory Multiprocessor Systems." (worth 2%)
• Notes for one class period (sign up on the swiki). These notes are due a week from the day of the lecture. (worth 2%)

Syllabus

Optional supplementary reference texts include the following:

• Operating Systems Concepts, Silberschatz and Galvin.
• CS 2200 Systems & Networking Textbook, Ramachandran and Leahy
• OS: Advanced Concepts, Maekawa, Oldehoeft. Addison-Wesley.
• Distributed Systems, Sape Mullender, Addison-Wesley.
• Distributed Operating Systems, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall.
• An Introduction to Programming with Threads, Andrew Burrell.
• Multithreaded Programming with Pthreads, Chapter 4, Bil Lewis, Daniel J. Berg.