EECE 315: Operating Systems Lecture 0: Course Orientation

What is this course about ? Design and Implementation of Operating Systems (OS) Role of the OS and interplay with applications and hardware Algorithms and data structures of OS entities – Trade-offs and constraints

What I expect you to know already ? Basic concepts Programming in C/C++ Systems programming (system calls) Hardware concepts such as interrupts, caches etc. Software concepts such as compiling, linking etc. Data structures such as Stacks, Queues, Linked Lists and Hashtables Algorithmic concepts such as Big O notation

What will you learn in this course ? How the different parts of an OS interact with each other to achieve the goals of the system How the OS makes design tradeoffs between different imperative (performance, fairness) How to write programs that can take advantage of OS features and facilities

Why should you take this course ? Few of you will go onto write an OS in entirety However, it is important to understand OSes Area that is rapidly evolving with the mobile device and web application market exploding Knowledge of OS internals can help you become a more rounded software engineer At the core, the OS is a large, complex S/W system that we’ll systematically take apart and analyze

Grading Programming Assignments (45 %) Midterm Exams (20%) Final Exam (30%) Class Participation (5%)

Assignments Five programming assignments using C++, each 9 % Will be done in teams of two (choose partner from same lab session by next week) Need to be demonstrated in lab sessions on which they’re due to TAs (and also submitted ahead of time) Both you and your partner must attend session Other sessions are optional You can split the work however you want; however, both of you are responsible for the solution you turn in.

Midterm Exams Two mid-term exams, each 10% One in the first week of February Other exam likely in first week of March Will emphasize conceptual understanding and problem solving No regurgitation of standard definitions etc. 100% based on conceptual understanding

Final Exam Similar to mid-term exams, but comprehensive Will test understanding and synthesis of material from lecture notes and textbook May also test you on concepts covered in the assignments and labs

Class Participation Counts for up to 5% of the marks Includes both Piazza and in-class participation Participation = Asking and answering (good) questions in class and on Piazza Does NOT mean simply attending class

Lectures and Quizzes I’ll post all lecture slides online, before class However, slides will be sparse and you’ll need to fill in the gaps based on our discussions Every class will have a substantial activity Exam questions will be very similar to these Will post solutions to some, but not all activities Activities will typically be done in teams of 2 or 3

To succeed in this course … Make sure you understand everything we cover Missing even a single concept can mean getting left behind. If in doubt, ask questions in class or on Piazza Try all class activities in class and by yourself later Do not look at solutions till you try them yourselves Start assignments early and ask for help on Piazza Time to start brushing up your C++ if you’re rusty on it