CSc 6522
Topics in Operating Systems
| Spring, 2008 | 3 Credits |
| Instructor: | Tom Bennet | |
| Office: | 302 MCC | |
| Phone: | 925-3815 | |
| Email: | bennet@mc.edu | |
| Text: | ACM Digital Library | |
| Web Page: | http://sandbox.mc.edu/~bennet/cs6522 |
A survey of landmark and recently published papers in the area of operating systems. Prerequisites: CSc 5422, 422, or equivalent.
Computer hardware can perform no function without software, and the essential piece of software in any computer system is the operating system. All other software depends on services provided by the OS, and cannot function without these services. Because of their importance, techniques for the correct, efficient, and usable design of operating systems has been under development for some fifty years.
Instruction in this course is through lecture and class discussion, problem-solving, and library research. Students will be assigned to read specific classical and current papers, and to research topics in the library. Specific papers and topics will vary from semester to semester.
After completing this course with a passing grade, students will understand the history of the ideas behind modern operating systems, and how they have changed. Students will be able to read and understand the current operating systems research literature.
Students will be graded on the following activities:
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Exams will be take-home, essay type. Students will have about a week to answer the questions. Expect to receive the first exam in mid-October, and the second one near the end of November.
The term project may be a library research paper, or present the results of the student's own work. The topic must be approved by the instructor. A research paper must be at least eight pages single-spaced, using reasonable fonts and margins. It must have at least 15 references. A programming project should be accompanied by a short paper (one page is usually sufficient) describing what it does and how to run it.
The last day to drop this course is Friday, March 28.
Students must have access to the ACM Digital Library. To access the text of articles from this library, you must join the ACM and buy the digital portal. For students, this costs $42, which is less than the cost of a printed textbook in many classes. Here is the student membership application. (Of the membership options at the bottom, the fouth choice is the cheapest way to get the digital library.) After purchasing the library, you must print out a receipt and bring it to class.
Mississippi College class attendance policies as described on pp. 46 and 47 of the college catalog will be enforced. Absences may be excused for illness or other appropriate cause. Exams missed due to circumstances beyond the student's control may be made up at a mutually agreeable time and place. Adequate documentation of the cause of an absence may be required.
Mississippi College regulations regarding the integrity of academic work, policy 2.19 will be enforced. The computer science group has established the following addendum:
In a computer science class individual effort is expected. Student misconduct not only includes cheating on tests, but also extends to copying or collaborating on programming assignments, projects, lab work or research unless otherwise specified by the instructor. Using other people's accounts to do your work or having others do your work is prohibited. Close proximity in lab does not mean collaboration is permitted. NOTE: Discussing logical solutions to problems is acceptable, exchange of code, pseudocode, designs, or procuring solutions from the Web, other texts, the Internet or other resources on or off campus is not acceptable.
First offense: grade of 0 for all parties involved unless the guilty party can be determined. Second offense: grade of F in the course.
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