CSE134 Spring 2024

Course Description

Students in this course will be introduced to the internal design of operating systems (OSes). Students will be exposed to how operating systems provide key abstractions to user programs. Students will complete significant programming projects that put these ideas into practice. The material covered in this course will be invaluable for further study of computer systems.

Learning Objectives

After taking CSE 134, students will…

• [[Skill]] be able to implement complex designs in real systems.
• [[Skill]] be able to extend existing systems to add new functionality.
• [[Skill]] be able to explain system designs, in English.
• [[Skill]] be able to critique system designs.
• [[Knowledge]] know how an OS system supports the process abstraction.
• [[Knowledge]] know the OS’s role in providing virtual memory.
• [[Knowledge]] know how an OS provides the file IO abstraction.

Course Outline

We will cover the following topics:

• Introduction to operating systems
• Concurrency (Review)
• Processes and Scheduling
• Virtualizing Memory
• File Systems

Prerequisites

The prerequisites are CSE 130 and CSE 120. Assignments in this course use the C programming language. The course relies on git for managing assignments, and you will likely find the course easier if you have familiarity with gdb. We will review the necessary tools in class, but we suggest that you proactively seek help if you find yourself behind.

Evaluation

We will measure your knowledge of the material for the course in the following ways:

Programming assignments

Like many of my esteemed colleagues, I believe that “students learn best by implementing”. So, the lion’s share of the points in this class will be awarded based upon your implementation of an actual operating system. Don’t worry—you won’t be building an OS from scratch. Instead, you’ll be working through four assignments based upon the (Pintos operating system)[https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs140/projects/pintos/pintos.pdf]. I will modify the assignments so that they are reasonable to accomplish in a 10-week quarter. Also, I have borrowed/created a good amount of course infrastructure to help you set Pintos up on your local machine—we’ll go through all of it early in the class.

Other than the first assignment, they build on each other. I will keep “double jeopardy” (or, losing points in later assignments because of mistakes in previous ones) to a minimum. But, there is some amount of double jeopardy that is fundamental to this project design. So, definitely be sure to take the first few projects seriously and do a good job on them.

You will complete the first assignment individually. The other three will be completed in pairs; you will have the same partner for the whole quarter. The course staff will put some infrastructure in place to help you find a partner with whom you will work well. But, the decision is yours and yours alone. No, you cannot do the projects individually, no matter how many times you say “please”. I will consider allowing groups of 3 (especially if there are an odd number of students enrolled in the course).

I know how group dynamics and politics can become problematic, especially when the goals and/or standards of members of the group diverge. The course staff will do our best to help mediate any tension. But, it will be largely up to you to deal with any issues. In my experience, the best way to address group problems is to establish boundaries and expectations honestly from the beginning: before forming a partnership, discuss your expectations, the amount of time you are willing to put into the project, when and where you plan to work on your operating system, etc.

Even though you are working as partners, you will all turn in assignments individually. You will maintain your source code through a git repository on GitLab@UCSC. You will turn in assignments by submitting a git commit id through the assignment submission on canvas. You and your partner must use the same commit ID for your submission. We’ll go through this setup early in the course.

The assignments generally have the following structure. We will award the majority (60%) of the assignment points for passing tests, which will be released to you at the start of each assignment. I.e., there are no hidden tests. Note that over-fitting your code—hard-coding your operating system’s output for specific tests—will result in a 0 on the test portion of your grade (even if there are some tests that you passed without such hard-coding). We will award the rest of the points (40%) for a design document that you will complete. We will provide a rubric for the design doc with each assignment.

You will each be given 3 “grace days” that you may use, no explanation necessary, to extend the due date of assignments 2–4 by 24 hours (this includes weekends and holidays). We will not grant any other extensions. Once you’re out of grace days, late projects will lose 25 points (out of 100) per day. A few things to note:

• We will automatically use grace days greedily for you—so, if you turn in A2 26 hours late, we deduct two grace day.
• Assignments 2–4 will be worth the same number of points.
• In our opinion, the assignment difficulty follow the following ordering from easiest to most difficult: A4, A2, A3.
• Because you are in a partnership, you and your partner will have to use grace days on the same assignments.
• You can use any number of grace days on any assignment.

Homework

We will assign homework on most week. We will use the homeworks to track your understanding of the material from the week’s lectures. As a result, they are excellent preparation for the final exam. The homeworks will be released early on Fridays and will be due at the EOD on the subsequent Monday.

Many of the homework assignments will be in a take-home quiz format, although they will include fewer questions than a typical take-home quiz. Some of the homeworks assignments will relate to the projects, typically as a mechanism to encourage you to explore a part of pintos’ design.

Exams

We will have a single final exam, worth 10% of the grade. You must take the exam at the scheduled time unless you are ill or have an unexpected family emergency and have the required documentation (e.g., a note from a doctor). The final exam will be cumulative and held at the time slot specified by the registrar (6/10/24 from 4:00PM–7:00PM).

Resources

Historically, I have found an extremely high correlation between student success and attendance and lectures and office hours. I will not take attendance, and I will release course material so that missing a single lecture does not derail your chances at success. That said, operating systems are complex systems, and there is a lot to learn. There is no substitute for actively engaging with the material during a structured course meeting. Thus, my advise is to come to class: ask questions in lecture, answer my discussion questions, do the in-class activities, take notes (!).

Course Meetings

Our course meetings/lectures will follow the following structure:

• Monday and Wednesday lectures will follow a conventional lecture structure and cover the course material for that week.
• Friday lectures will finish lecture material for the week and then include a hands-on activity. The activity will depend on the week, we may: analyze code, work on homework assignments, or walk through course projects. For best results, plan on bringing a laptop (or, work together on a friend’s laptop) on these days.
• Office hours will be open Q&A. If you come to office hours, have specific questions to ask. General angst (e.g., ``I don’t know where to start’’) is completely normal for these projects, but will generally be better address during Friday lectures. Note that we will typically favor answering general design questions, which we can ask/answer in front of a group of students, rather than questions that only pertain to an individual.

Materials

We will provide the following materials to help you in this course:

• We will release slides and/or notes for lectures on Canvas.
• We will release lecture videos on Yuja.
• Most of the material that we cover in course will come from the textbook, Operating Systems, Three easy pieces, Arpaci-Dusseau & Arpaci-Dusseau, written by the phenomenal Andrea and Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau. There is some material that we will cover that is not in the book; when possible, I will release supplementary material to cover this other content

Other Resources

We will also have a piazza for this course. There are only two of us in the course staff, so expect a relatively high response time on Piazza. Your classmates will probably be very helpful at giving advise for public questions. Note: it is not OK to post your own code on piazza (it is OK to post code that we discuss in class or from the original Pintos distribution).

Academic Integrity

All members of the UCSC community benefit from an environment of trust, honesty, fairness, respect, and responsibility. You are expected to present your own work and acknowledge the work of others in order to preserve the integrity of scholarship.

Academic integrity includes:

• Following assessment rules
• Incorporating proper citation of all sources of information
• Submitting your own original work

Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Copying/purchasing any material from another student, or from another source, that is submitted for grading as your own
• Plagiarism, including use of Internet material without proper citation
• Submitting your own work in one class that was completed for another class (self-plagiarism) without prior permission from the instructor.

Violations of the Academic Integrity policy can result in dismissal from the university and a permanent notation on a student’s transcript. For the full policy and disciplinary procedures on academic dishonesty, students and instructors should refer to the Academic Integrity for Graduate Students.

Accessibility

UC Santa Cruz is committed to creating an academic environment that supports its diverse student body. If you are a student with a disability who requires accommodations to achieve equal access in this course, please submit your Accommodation Authorization Letter from the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to me privately by email, preferably within the first two weeks of the quarter. At this time, I would like us to discuss ways we can ensure your full participation in the course. I encourage all students who may benefit from learning more about DRC services to contact the DRC by phone at 831-459-2089 or by email at drc@ucsc.edu.

Intellectual Property

The materials in this course are the intellectual property of their creators. As a student, you have access to many of the materials in the course for the purpose of learning, engaging with your peers in the course, completing assignments, etc. You have a moral and legal obligation to respect the rights of others by only using course materials for purposes associated with the course. For instance, you are not permitted to share, upload, stream, sell, republish, share the login information for, or otherwise disseminate any of the course materials, such as: video and audio files, assignment prompts, slides, notes, syllabus, simulations, data-sets, discussion threads. Conversely, any materials created by you (for example, your videos, essays, images, audio files, annotations, notes) are your intellectual property and you may use them as you wish.

Religious Accommodation

UC Santa Cruz welcomes diversity of religious beliefs and practices, recognizing the contributions differing experiences and viewpoints can bring to the community. There may be times when an academic requirement conflicts with religious observances and practices. If that happens, students may request the reasonable accommodation for religious practices. The instructor will review the situation in an effort to provide a reasonable accommodation without penalty. You should first discuss the conflict and your requested accommodation with your instructor early in the term. You or your instructor may also seek assistance from the Dean of Students office (https://deanofstudents.ucsc.edu).

Principles of Community

The University of California, Santa Cruz expressly prohibits students from engaging in conduct constituting unlawful discrimination, harassment or bias (see https://reporthate.ucsc.edu/principles-and-policies/index.html). I am committed to providing an atmosphere for learning that respects diversity and supports inclusively. We need to work together to build this community of learning. I ask all members of this class to:

• be open to and interested in the views of others consider the possibility that your views may change over the course of the term
• be aware that this course asks you to reconsider some “common sense” notions you may hold honor the unique life experiences of your colleagues
• appreciate the opportunity that we have to learn from each other listen to each other’s opinions and communicate in a respectful manner
• keep confidential discussions that the community has of a personal (or professional) nature
• ground your comments in the work we are studying. Refer frequently to the texts and make them the focus of your questions, comments, and arguments. This is the single most effective way to ensure respectful discussion and to create a space where we are all learning together.

Title IX and CARE

UC Santa Cruz is committed to providing a safe learning environment that is free of all forms of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, which are explicitly prohibited under Title IX. If you have experienced any form of sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking, know that you are not alone. The Title IX Office, the Campus Advocacy, Resources & Education (CARE) office, and Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) are all resources that you can rely on for support.

Please be aware that if you tell me about a situation involving Title IX misconduct, I am required to share this information with the Title IX Coordinator. This reporting responsibility also applies to course TAs and tutors (as well to all UCSC employees who are not designated as “confidential” employees, which is a special designation granted to counselors and CARE advocates). Although I have to make that notification, you will control how your case will be handled, including whether or not you wish to pursue a formal complaint. The goal is to make sure that you are aware of the range of options available to you and that you have access to the resources you need.

Confidential resources are available through CARE. Confidentiality means CARE advocates will not share any information with Title IX, the police, parents, or anyone else without explicit permission. CARE advocates are trained to support you in understanding your rights and options, accessing health and counseling services, providing academic and housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and more. You can contact CARE at (831) 502-2273 or care@ucsc.edu.

In addition to CARE, these resources are available to you:

• If you need help figuring out what resources you or someone else might need, visit the resources page from the Title IX Office
• Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) can provide confidential counseling support. Call them at (831) 459-2628.
• You can also report gender discrimination and sexual harassment and violence directly to the University’s Title IX Office (https://titleix.ucsc.edu), by calling (831) 459-2462 or by using their online reporting tool.
• Reports to law enforcement can be made to the UC Police Department, (831) 459-2231 ext. 1.
• For emergencies, call 911.

Report an Incident of Hate or Bias

The University of California, Santa Cruz is committed to maintaining an objective, civil, diverse and supportive community, free of coercion, bias, hate, intimidation, dehumanization or exploitation. The Hate/Bias Response Team is a group of administrators who support and guide students seeking assistance in determining how to handle a bias incident involving another student, a staff member, or a faculty member. To report an incident of hate or bias, please use this form

Student Services

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