CS 350 - Operating Systems

Fall 2011 Course Outline

Lectures

Online Discussion Forum

• We will be using a system for class-related discussions called Piazza.
• The Piazza link for this course is: http://piazza.com/class#fall2011/cs350
• You will need to get addded as a student to this course in Piazza before being able to access the above link. Students who are enrolled in the course when classes start will receive an e-mail inviting them to Piazza. If you do not receive this e-mail, or if you enroll after classes start, you can add yourself as a student to the course using your Waterloo e-mail.

Course Personnel and Office Hours

• Office hours will be held in the MC 2061 lab.
• Watch Piazza for changes to office hours.

Grading Scheme

Component	Description
A0, A1, A2, A3	Your grades on assignments 0-3, expressed as percentages
M	Your midterm exam grade, expressed as a percentage
F	Your final exam grade, expressed as a percentage

Then, we will apply the following algorithm to determine your final course grade:

Normal  = (0.02*A0 + 0.08*A1 + 0.125*A2 + 0.125*A3) + 0.20*M + 0.45*F 
Exam    = (0.20*M + 0.45*F ) / 0.65

if ( Exam < 50% ) {
    Course Grade = min (Normal, Exam)
} else {
    Course Grade = Normal
}

Instructional Support Coordinator

Course Description

Course Objectives:

Course Overview:

• Operating System Introduction (2 hours)
  The roles of an operating system. Historical overview of operating system development. Operating system architectures.
• Multi-Programming (5 hours)
  Processes and threads, system calls, context switching. Managing processor time. Types of scheduling, scheduling algorithm.
• Concurrency (6 hours)
  Principles of concurrency. Mutual exclusion and semaphores. Deadlock detection and prevention.
• Memory Management (8 hours)
  Simple memory management techniques: partitioning, dynamic loading, simple segmentation. Virtual addressing and address translation. Virtual memory management: segmentation, paging, caching strategies. Load control, swapping, and thrashing.
• Device Management (3 hours)
  Physical structure and properties of devices, device control and interaction, blocking, buffering, disk scheduling, DMA.
• File Systems (5 hours)
  File naming, types and logical organization. Space allocation and management. File system interfaces. Implementation strategies. Case studies.
• Interprocess Communication (5 hours)
  Terminology and issues, message passing functionality, pipes, sockets, signals, shared memory, and other communication mechanisms.

Required text:

Required Course Notes:

Assignments

Marked assignments can be picked up during the IA's office hours, during the first two weeks after they have been marked. After two weeks they can be picked up from the instructor's office until the end of the term. Unclaimed assignments will be shredded at the end of the term.

Assignment marking reappraisal requests:
If there is a problem with the marking your assignment, you may request that your assignment be reappraised. To do this:

• Print and fill out a reappraisal form, on which you should describe (briefly) what the problem is.
• Drop your form off with the course instructor after lecture or during office hours.

Slip Days Policies

Each assignment has a due date and a due time, which will be posted on the course web page. For some assignments we will use a system of "slip days" to give you some flexibility with the assignment deadlines. Each person starts the term with five slip days, which can be used to push back assignment deadlines. Slip days work as follows:

• Pushing an assignment deadline back by one day (24 hours) costs each person in a group one of their slip days. If one or more group members don't have enough slip days left, then the group can't slip.
• An assignment deadline can be pushed back at most 3 days.
• Partial slip days are not allowed, e.g., it is not possible to use part of a slip day to push a deadline back by 6 hours.
• Slip days are not transferable from one student to another.

Group Policies

• After a group is formed, only one break-up is allowed during the term.
• After a break-up, new groups cannot be formed.
  
• After a break-up, each individual gets a copy of the original group's project work. This includes any source code and documentation.
• The one break-up that is allowed can only occur after the deadline of the current assignment
  ( within 1 week of the actual deadline of the assignment, without including any slip days ).
• All requests for break-ups should be in written form and should occur on the request for reappraisal form.

Academic Integrity

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4, www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm. When in doubt please be certain to contact the department's administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity [check www.uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity/] to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about 'rules' for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate Associate Dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline, www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties, www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/guidelines/penaltyguidelines.htm.

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 (Student Petitions and Grievances) (other than a petition) or Policy 71 (Student Discipline) may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 (Student Appeals) www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm.