1. COMP 3438 System Programming
Welcome to:
COMP 3438 System Programming

2. Lecturers and Tutors Lecturer: Dr. Zili SHAO Office: PQ721
Telephone No. :
Consultation time: 3pm–5pm Friday
Tutors: Mr. Renhai Chen
Office: PQ 822
Telephone:
Consultation time: 3-5pm Friday

3. System programming? Types of software:
Application programs (e.g., e-shop, banking)
What you normally think of as a “program”
Compilers and interpreters
Programs used to write other programs
Operating system (e.g., Windows XP, UNIX)
Program that manages display, CPU, memory, disk, tape,

4. Layers of a computer system
Banking Airline Adventure
System reservation games
Application Software 6
Command
interpreter 5
Compiler DBMS Editor
System
Software
Assembler / Linker / Loader 4
Operating system 3
Machine language 2
Hardware
Layers
Microprogramming 1
Physical devices

5. Layers of software
Application software solve end user-specified problems – the focus is on the application, not on the computer system.
e.g. CAD/CAM, Finance software
e.g. spreadsheet, word processing, calculators
e.g. StudentManageSys at PolyU
System software support the operations of the computer itself, rather than any particular application.
O.S.
Software development tools (e.g. editors, compilers and libraries, debuggers)
Database management, window management, networking software
System software is usually machine dependent.

6. System programming? Application programmer
a programmer who does programming with some application packages, e.g.,
creating a student database using Oracle
developing a Web page using Frontpage
writing a medical imaging software using some graphics package
System programming (also called system-level programming)
programming and administrating of system software including OS and those that may run directly on top of OS (i.e. directly interacting with OS by invoking kernel functions and facilities).
System programmer
a programmer who does system programming

7. Objectives of this subject
This subject introduces
Concepts and principles of system programming
Methods, techniques, and tools for designing and implementing system-level programs
Software development using
OS services
Utilities and tools
We focus on
Compilers – programming language implementation
Device Driver – Operating system kernel interface

8. Topics Introduction to system software
Part I: Unix System programming – Unix Device Driver Development
Basic Knowledge
UNIX programming basics
Unix processes
Unix file systems
Unix Device Driver Development
The Basics of Unix Device Driver Development
The Character Device Driver Development
The Block Device Driver Development
Experimental Platform
Embedded Linux Development Environment based on ARM processor
Practice with real hardware

9. Topics Principles of compiler construction
Syntax and semantics of programming languages
Lexical analysis
Syntax analysis
Code generation and optimization

10. Background required Basic knowledge in Data structures
Programming language syntax and grammars
Programming in C
Understanding of OS (process, file system, etc.)

11. Background required
Specifically, you should be familiar with the following topics:
Logging into a UNIX system;
Creating files using one of the standard editors provided on the system;
The tree-like directory structure presented by UNIX;
Basic commands for manipulating files and directories;
Creating and compiling C programs (including programs with code held in several source files);
Using command line arguments: argc and argv, within C program;
Using system manual.

12. At the end … You will understand: You will be able to
the role of system and application software,
the tasks of a system programmer,
the procedure and methods of implementing device drivers
the principles and methods of designing language compilers
the approaches to invoking OS services.
You will be able to
apply the concepts and techniques of system-level programming,
write simple compiler modules
using tools to generate a compiler for a target language
Unix device driver implementation.

13. The Course Organization of COMP 309 (Bottom-up)
Overview of the Subject (COMP 3438)
Overview of Unix Sys. Prog.
Process/File System (HW #1)
Overview of Device Driver Development
Character
Device Driver Development
(HW #2)
Introduction to Block Device Driver
Overview of Complier Design
Lexical Analysis
(HW #3)
Syntax Analysis
(HW #4)
Part I: Unix System Programming
(Device Driver Development)
Part II:
Compiler Design

14. Course materials Blackboard Homepage: Textbooks:
Textbooks:
A.V. Aho, M. Lam, R. Sethi and J.D. Ullman, “Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools”, Prentice Hall; 2 edition, 2006.
Kay A Robbings and Steven Robbings, “Unix Systems Programming”. Prentice Hall PTR. (2003)
G. Pajari, “Writing Unix Device Drivers”, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993.
Supplementary reading:
textbooks in compilers and Unix programming (many, see Syllabus for a list of references)
References (Device Driver) will be posted on WebCT

15. Teaching methods Teaching Mode: Assignments Self-readings
Lectures: Hours
Lecture notes (slides) are provided on the Blackboard
I may use whiteboard or powerpoint (or both), depending on what to teach.
Tutorial/Lab: 13 Hours
Assignments
Self-readings
Group discussion

16. Labs All labs will be held in PQ 606
We will use ARM-based embedded boards (Android-pad) in the lab
During the lab, the tutor will introduce the basic idea of the lab, and show the procedure how it works.
You may need to conduct hands-on experiments by using other time based on labs provided.

17. Assessment Continuous assessment: 55% Examination (2 hours): 45%
Labs & Tutorials (Simple questions) 5%
Class exercises %
Four Assignments %
Assignment 1 - Process and File (5%)
Assignment 2 - Device Driver (10%)
Assignment 3 - Lexical Analyzer (10%)
Assignment 4 - Syntax Analyzer (10%)
(Late assignment: 20% deduction per day
e.g., 1 minute or 23 hours late  deduct 20% )
1 Mid-term Test (10%)
Examination (2 hours): 45%

18. Finally, some requests …
You are strongly encouraged to attend the lectures and the tutorial/Lab sessions
Lecture notes posted on the web may cover a lot of things, but I will only teach the most important things that are only parts required for the exam
Believe me, you will easily get lost if you don’t come to the class – This may be one of the most difficult subjects in our department
Welcome to ask questions and actively participate in the classroom.
Please make your best effort to arrive at the classroom on time. If you come late, try your best not to disturb the classmates.
If you have questions, ask me so other students can benefit.