CSE 421/521

Introduction to Operating Systems

 

Instructor:

Prof. Tevfik Kosar

338J Davis Hall, 645-2323

tkosar@buffalo.edu

Office hours: Wed 11:00am - 1:00pm

 

Course Description:

CSE 421/521 is an introductory course on the design and implementation of operating systems. It will focus on different OS design techniques, process management, processor scheduling, concurrent programming, deadlocks and synchronization, memory management, file management and I/O systems, disk scheduling, protection and security, and distributed systems. The course will include hands-on programming projects on different OS components. (Prerequisites of this course: CSE 250, or an equivalent course, or permission of the instructor.)

 

Course Logistics:

        Lecture time & location   : Tue & Thu, 11:00am - 12:20pm (NSC 201)

Teaching assistants          : Yuyang Chen (yuyangch@buffalo.edu)

                                           Naveena Elango (naveenae@buffalo.edu)

   Asif Imran (asifimra@buffalo.edu)            

                                           Hanbin Zhang (hanbinzh@buffalo.edu)  

Exam schedule                : Midterm 1: October 8^th @11:00am-12:20pm (NSC 201)

  Midterm 2: December 5^th @11:00am-12:20pm (NSC 201)

 

 Textbook: (Highly Recommended)       

·       Operating Systems Concepts (9^th Edition),

      by A. Silbershatz, P.B. Galvin, and G. Gayne. Wiley Publishers, 2012.

ISBN: 978-1-118-06333-0 

 

Recommended Supplementary Text: (Recommended)

·       The C Programming Language. By Kernighan and Ritchie. Prentice Hall, Second Edition, 1988, ISBN 0-13-110362-8.

 

• Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, by Richard Stevens. Addison Wesley Press, 1993, ISBN 0-201-56317-7.

 

 

Grading:

 

The end-of-semester grades for this course will be composed of:

 

·      Pop Quizzes: 5%

·      Homework: 5%

·      Project-1: 20%  

·      Project-2: 20%   

·      Midterm-1: 25%

·      Midterm-2: 25%

 

* There will be separate curves for graduate and undergraduate students.

* There will be no formal attendance taken in the class. But, you are expected to attend the classes and actively contribute via asking and/or answering questions.

 

Pop Quizzes:

 

There may be pop quizzes at the beginning of some classes. The questions in the quizzes will come mostly from the material discussed in the previous lecture(s) or homework assignment(s). The quizzes will be very short (5-10 min) with one or  two questions aiming to test whether you have understood the most recently discussed material in the curse. There will be 5 pop quizzes throughout the semester. One with the lowest grade will be discarded, and the rest four will count towards your final degree.

 

Homework:

 

There will be four homework assignments throughout the semester. The format of the homework questions will be similar to the exercises at the end of each chapter in the Silberschatz book. The homework assignments aim to ensure that you read the textbook and study regularly for the material covered in the class.

 

Projects:

 

There will be two hands-on programming projects throughout the course. These projects will aim to implement some core Operating System components for better understanding of the concepts. These will be team projects and they will require strong programming background in C and UNIX programming experience.

 

Piazza Discussion Forum:

 

We will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates, the TA, and myself. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza. Find our class page at: https://piazza.com/buffalo/fall2019/cse421521

Course Schedule (Tentative):

This schedule is tentative and subject to change. Please check Piazza for lecture slides, and other course related documents.

 

Date	Lect.	Title	Notes
Aug 27	1	Introduction
Aug 29	2	Operating System Structures
Sep 3	3	Processes
Sep 5	4	Threads	Project-1 out
Sep 10	5	Project-1 Discussion
Sep 12	6	CPU Scheduling - I
Sep 17	7	CPU Scheduling - II
Sep 19	8	Process Synchronization - I
Sep 24	9	Process Synchronization - II
Sep 26	10	Deadlocks - I
Oct 1	11	Deadlocks - II
Oct 3	12	Midterm-I Review
Oct 8		MIDTERM-I EXAM	Room: NSC 201
Oct 10	13	Midterm-I Discussion
Oct 15	14	Main Memory - I
Oct 17	15	Main Memory - II	Project-1 due
Oct 22	16	Project-2 Discussion	Project-2 out
Oct 24	17	Virtual Memory - I
Oct 29	18	Virtual Memory - II
Oct 31	19	File Systems - I
Nov 5	20	File Systems - II
Nov 7	21	Distributed Systems - I
Nov 12	22	Distributed Systems - II
Nov 14	23	Distributed Systems - III
Nov 19	24	Mass Storage & I/O - I
Nov 21	25	Mass Storage & I/O - II
Nov 26	26	Protection & Security
Nov 28			Fall Recess
Dec 3	27	Midterm-II Review
Dec 5		MIDTERM-II EXAM	Room: NSC 201
Dec 8			Project-2 due

 

Academic Integrity Policy:

 

UB’s definition of Academic Integrity in part is, students are responsible for the honest completion and representation of their work. It is required as part of this course that you read and understand the departmental academic integrity policy located at the following URL: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/undergrad/current_students/policy_academic.php

There is a very fine line separating conversation pertaining to concepts and academic dishonesty. You are allowed to converse about general concepts, but in no way are you allowed to share code or have one person do the work for others. If you are caught violating the academic integrity policy, you will minimally receive an “F” in the course.

 

* PS: We are using professional software which can easily detect any cheating attempts in programming projects. The results generated by this software is considered as official evidence for cheating from another student, or from internet or any other resource.