CS350: Operating Systems
Fall 2008

Latest News (Most Recent First)

• In-calss, closed-book mideterm is scheduled on Oct. 14 (Chapters 1- 5). (Previous midterm)
• In-class, closed-book Quiz 1 on Sept. 25th (Chapter 1 - Chapter 4). Click here to see the previous year's quiz.
• Welcome to CS350! Please visit this news section regularly!

Instructor: KD Kang

• Email: kang@cs.binghamton.edu
• Office: EB T16
• Office Hours: TR 1:40PM - 2:40PM in EB T16

TA: Yan Zhou

• Email: yzhou@cs.binghamton.edu
• Office Hours: TR 7PM - 8PM in EB T5

Objective

This course is an introduction to modern operating systems. Key concepts such as processes, threads, scheduling, memory management, virtual memory, synchronization, and file systems will be covered. Introduction to distributed systems and real-time systems will also be provided.

Text

Operating System Concepts (8th edition), Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, John Wiley and Sons Inc. (ISBN 978-0-470-12872-5)

Grading

Absolute Grading: 3 Quizzes (15 points), Midterm (20 points), Final (25 points), 4 Programming Assignments (30 points), and Homeworks (10 points).

Course Policies

• The Binghamton University Honesty Code is strictly enforced in this course. Any violation will be handled according to the Binghamton University Honesty Code. Students who violate the code are required to submit the Report of Academic Dishonesty form to the university.
• If cheating is discovered, all the involved students will get zero for the corresponding programming assignments, homeworks, exams, or quizzes. This rule applies to everybody involved in the violation of the Binghamton University Honesty Code no matter whether you copied somebody else's work or showed your work to somebody else.
• When regrading is requested, an entire homework or exam will be regraded. As a result, the score may actually decrease.
• Attendance is mandatory. The instructor will take attendance at random. For each absence, two points (out of the maximum possible 100 points described above) will be deducted.
• Lack of attention is considered an absence.
• No laptop usage is allowed in the class. Cell phones should be either in vibration mode or turned off. Cell phone calls are only allowed for emergency alerts or personal emergencies. You should drop other calls.
• There will be 10% late penalty per day for a programming assignment or homework. No late quiz or exam will be allowed without prior permission except an emergency.
• Good coding practice and comments are required. Generally, style is considered as important as content.
• The instructor will not debug your code.
• Do not email an incomplete/buggy program to the instructor or TA to get help for debugging or any other comments.

Schedule (subject to revisions)

• Aug 26: First Class
• Aug 28: Ch 1
• Sep 2: Ch 2
• Sep 4: Ch 3
• Sep 9: Ch 3
• Sep 11: Ch 3
• Sep 16: Ch 4
• Sep 18: Ch 4
• Sep 23: Ch 5
• Sep 25: Quiz #1: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4, Previous quiz
• Sep 30: No Class (Rosh Hashanah)
• Oct 2: Ch 5 & Ch 19.5
• Oct 4: Ch 5
• Oct 7: Ch 6
• Oct 9: No Class (Yom Kippur)
• Oct 14: Midterm Exam: Ch 1 - Ch 5, Previous midterm
• Oct 16: Ch 6
• Oct 21: Ch 6
• Oct 23: No Class (KD at a workshop)
• Oct 28: Ch 7
• Oct 30: Ch 7
• Nov 4: Ch 8 & 9
• Nov 6: Quiz #2
• Nov 11: Ch 8 & Ch 9
• Nov 13: Ch 10 and Ch 11
• Nov 18: Ch 12 and Ch 13
• Nov 20: Ch 16
• Nov 25: Ch 18
• Nov 27: No class (Thanksgiving)
• Dec 2: Quiz #3
• Dec 4: Ch 19 and Ch 20
• Dec 9: Review session
• Dec 11: Final Exam (at usual class time and place)

Lecture Slides

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Help for developing a command shell via fork and exec
• Chapter 6 (1/2)
• Chapter 6 (2/2)
• Help for Programming Assignment 3 (Synchornization between threads)
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 16

Homeworks

• There will be three homeworks. Each homework is 3% of your total grade. (You automatically get the remaining 1% for your effort.)
• Homework 1 is due at the beginning of the class on Oct. 14, 2008. Please be timely; there will be 10% late penalty per day.

Programming Assignments

• Each programming assignment is 7.5% of your grade.
• Please note that the TA is the best person to contact regarding the programming assignments. The instructor will only explain the concepts, while the TA is fully in charge of the assignments.
• The TA will compile and run your program in Bingsuns and Linux. Make sure your code compiles in gcc or g++ with no error and runs correctly in Bingsuns, which is Solaris, or in Linux. If your program does not successfully compile and run in Bingsuns or Linux, you will get zero. Click here for Introduction to Bingsuns. Alternatively, you can use Linux machines available at the LNG Pod. For more information about Unix, click here.
  
  
• Programming Assignment #1 is due at 11:59:59PM, October 2, 2008. There will be 10% late penalty per day. Click here to get the pseudo code you can use to do this assignment.
• Programming Assignment #2 is due at 11:59:59PM, Oct. 21, 2008. There will be 10% late penalty per day.
• Programming Assignment #3 is due at 11:59:59PM, Nov. 11, 2008. There will be 10% late penalty per day.
• Programming Assignment #4 is due at 11:59:59PM, Dec. 4, 2008. There will be 10% late penalty per day.

Quizzes and Exams

Coming soon...