This course has four purposes: (1) to learn about the hierarchy
of abstractions and implementations that comprise a modern
computer system; (2) to demystify the machine and the tools that
we use to program it; (3) to come up to speed on systems
programming in C in the Unix environment; (4) to prepare students
for upper-level systems courses.
The course is organized as a series of lectures, Lab and
hoemwork assignments and exams:
There will be two kinds of homework assignments given
throughout the class: reading assignments and textbook-style
questions. You should have finished the assigned reading before
coming to lecture. In addition, there will be a set of written
homework assignments that must be done alone and turned in by
midnight on the due date (see course policies below).
| HW Assignment |
Out |
In |
News |
| 1: Ints & Floats |
03/28 |
04/12 (11:59PM) |
Deadline extended |
| 2: Decoding assembly [tar] |
04/23 |
05/02 (11:59PM) |
- |
| 3: Memory and Cache |
05/10 |
05/18 (11:59PM) |
- |
| 4: From linking to virtual memory |
05/23 |
06/01 (11:59PM) |
- |
Labs
As you can deduce from the allocation of weights for grading,
programming projects make up a major portion of this class. Their
goal is to make you apply the concepts you've learned and to gain
familiarity with Unix tools that can help you apply them.
There will be three (3) projects. All projects are to be done
by teams of two (2) people. Both partners should work
cooperatively on the design, implementation, and testing of their
solution.
You'll be able to do the programming assignments on any modern
Linux machine. You should already have a TLAB account. If this is
not the case, contact root@eecs .... To enter the TLAB classroom
(Tech F-252), contact Carol Surma (carol@eecs ...). It should be
possible to do some of the asssignments using the Cygwin
environment on Windows or in Mac OS X, but they will be graded in
a Linux environment, so be sure your code works on the TLAB
machines.
Info on the Teaching
Lab.
The following table of deadlines should serve you as a
guideline for planning your quarter. You are given about two weeks
per project. This should be plenty of time if managed
carefully.
| Project |
Out |
In |
News |
| 1: Data Lab [pdf] [tar] |
04/03 |
04/17 (11:59PM) |
Great work! |
| 2: Bomb Lab [pdf] |
04/26 |
05/10 (11:59PM) |
Out |
| 3: mysystem [pdf] [tar] |
05/23 |
06/01 (11:59PM) |
Out |
Exams
There will be a midterm and a final exam. Exams will be
in-class, closed-book, and will cover materials from lectures,
homework assignments and projects. The final exam will not be
cumulative.
Here's a sample midterm exam.
Midterm exam: Solutions.
Here's a sample final exam.
Grading
I use a criterion-referenced method to assign your grade; in
other words, your grade will be based on how well you do relative
to predetermined performance levels, instead of in comparison with
the rest of the class. Thus, if a test has 100 possible points,
anyone with a score of 90 or greater will get an A, those with
scores of 80 or greater will get a B, those with scores of 70 or
greater will get a C, and so on. Notice that this means that if
everyone works hard and gets >90, everyone gets an A.
Total scores (between 0 and 100) will be determined, roughly,
as follows:
- Homework 10%
- Class participation
- Projects 30%
- Exams (25% each) 50%
Course Outline and Approximate
Dates
Because one has to be an optimist to begin an
ambitious project, it is not surprising that underestimation of
completion time is the norm.
-- Fernando J. Corbató, ``On Building Systems that Will Fail'',
1990 Turing Award Lecture.
| 03/26 |
Introduction |
1 |
| 03/28 |
Bits and Bytes |
2, 2.1 |
| 04/02 |
Integers |
2.2, 2.3 |
|
| 04/04 |
Floating point |
2.4, 2.5 |
| 04/09 |
The machine model |
3, 3.1-3.5, 5.7 |
| 04/11 |
Control flow |
3.6 |
| 04/16 |
Procedures |
3.7 |
| 04/18 |
Data |
3.8-3.11 |
| 04/23 |
Advanced machine code |
3.12-3.16 |
| 04/25 |
Midterm |
|
| 04/30 |
Memory and cache |
6, 6.1-6.4 |
| 05/02 |
Cache performance |
6.5-6.7 |
| 05/07 |
Linking |
7 |
| 05/09 |
Exceptional control flow |
8, 8.1-8.8 |
| 05/14 |
Memory system and virtual memory |
10, 10.1-10.8 |
| 05/16 |
Memory allocation |
10.9-10.13 |
| 05/21 |
Input/Output |
11 |
| 05/23 |
Network programming |
12, handouts |
| 05/28 |
Memorial Day |
|
| 05/30 |
Concurrency, distributed systems and wrap-up |
13, handouts |
| 06/04 |
Final |
|
Policies
Late policy:
Unless otherwise indicated, homework assignments and projects
are due by midnight on their due date. If you hand in an
assignment late, we will take off 10% for each day (or portion
thereof) it is late.
Cheating vs. Collaboration:
Collaboration is a really good thing and we encourage it. On
the other hand, cheating is considered a very serious
offense. When in doubt, remember that it's OK to meet with
colleagues, study for exams together, and discuss assignments with
them. However, what you turn in must be your own (or for group
projects, your group's own) work. Copying code, solution sets,
etc. from other people or any other sources is strictly
prohibited.
Last modified: Thu Nov 6 13:29:47 CST 2008
In compliance
with Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the Americans
with Disabilities Act, Northwestern University is committed to
providing equal access to all programming. Students with
disabilities seeking accommodations are encouraged to contact the
office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at +1 847
467-5530 or ssd@northwestern.edu. SSD
is located in the basement of Scott Hall. Additionally, I am
available to discuss disability-related needs during office hours
or by appointment.