COSC 6360 Operating Systems

Jehan-François Pârisjfparis@uh.edu

Fall 2015

Course organization

• COSC 6360 is a survey course– No textbook

• Reading list is entirely on-line• All papers are required reading

– Supplemental papers will be covered more lightly than regular papers

Our TA • Carlos Rincon

– Email: carincon AT uh DOT edu – Hours: MW from 1pm to 2pm– Office: PGH 313

Administrative details• Instructor: Jehan-François Pâris• E-mail: jfparis AT uh DOT edu• Office: 569 PGH• Phone: 713-743-3341 (office hours)• Office Hours: MW 4:30-5:00 & 7:15-7:45 pm• Web page: www.cs.uh.edu/~paris

• Twitter: jehanfrancois

The papers (II)• My selection of papers is based upon

– Importance of Contribution: UNIX, NFS

– Actuality of Contribution: ARC, Corey, …

– Importance of the Topic: most papers

– New Insight: FAWN, RAFT

– Best paper from last SOSP

Accessing the papers

• Papers that are put on line should only be used for instructional purposes

• They are freely accessible from within the UH domain

• From outside the UH domain, please use:– Login: cosc6360– Password: cl*ss (replace the * by a letter)

How to read a paper

• Download it first• Start reading first

– The abstract to get a general idea– The conclusions to see which ideas worked– Read very attentively the parts of the paper I

discuss in class– Skim the rest (unless you are a slow reader)

Grading policy• Grade will be based on

– Five quizzes (75%)– One term project (25%)

• Attendance is expected from all– You can expect one or two pop quizzes

• Can boost your grades by up to 1 percent

The papers (I)• Thirty-something papers covering ten major themes

–UNIX–Memory Management–Caching–Kernel Structures–Distributed Systems Issues –P2P Systems–File Systems and Distributed File Systems–Fault-Tolerance (Byzantine failures)–Power Management

The quizzes (I)

• Will take place every three weeks:

1. Monday, September 14

2. Monday, October 5

3. Monday ,October 26

4. Monday, November 16

5. Friday, December 11 at 5:00 pm(could be advanced by general demand)

The quizzes

• Will cover the readings of the previous weeks– You will be responsible for all the topics

discussed in class• Will be closed-book

– Can bring one single-sided page of notes

Hints for the quizzes

• I like to ask– Short problems– Questions on advantages and disadvantages of

specific solutions• Objective is to test that you can put to work the

concepts you have learned• Will have an ungraded homework before

each quiz

The term project

• A personal investigation of some particular topic of operating systems or distributed systems

• Should ideally include some original research (measurements, simulations and so forth)

• Report should be– eight to ten double-spaced pages plus

references– twelve pages or more for a mere survey paper

If you do a survey paper

• Ideally should start with a dozen of sources• Your paper should not focus on a single source

– Especially if it has been discussed in class• I appreciate papers

– Describing in some detail various approaches to a given problem

– Analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of these solutions

Submitting your report

• Two copies in my mailbox by due date.• Have both copies stapled in the upper left corner• Use a reasonable point size

– 11-point for single column paper • Set reasonable margins (1" top and bottom, either 1" or

1.25" left and right)• Use standard ACM or IEEE formats for your list of

references

Formatting options

• Single-column double-spaced:– Traditional manuscript format– Use 1" or 1.25" margins and point size 11

• Two-column single-spaced:– Most current conference submission format– Use 1" margins and point size 10.– Never use double-space in a two-column paper

Academic honesty

• No cheating or plagiarism will be tolerated in any graded assignment

• You cannot – Lift entire sentences without quoting them– Follow the overall organization of any

document that you did not write. • The minimum penalty for any transgression

will be an F grade for the course

More tips

• Figures have captions– Go below the figure– Captions have numbers

• Tables have titles– Go above the table– Table titles have numbers

Selecting a term project

• For a survey paper, select a topic that is– Neither too vast nor too limited– Discussed a reasonable number of sources– Not a dead topic

• For a more experimental paper, select a topic that interests you and can be pursued within the scope of the course

• Group projects are welcome

You havebeen

warned!

Unless you want to fly back home …

YOUR NAME

YOUR NAME

HOUSTON IAH YOUR HOME YOUR HOME

Your family will be so proud of you!

Semester TimetablePaper proposal Wednesday, September 16

First quiz Monday, September 14

Second quiz Monday, October 5

Third quiz Monday ,October 26

Fourth quiz Monday, November 16

Paper due Two hard copies by Wednesday, December 9 at 7 pm sharp

Last quiz Friday, December 11 at 5:00 pm (could be advanced if asked)

My last word

• Please verify that your PeopleSoft account has your correct email address:

– I need it to get in touch with you