ECE 329 Computer Systems Structures

Fall 2007

In this course students will learn the basics of operating systems, including the creation, management, and scheduling of threads and processes; process communication and synchronization; memory management; file systems; and I/O. Programming assignments connect the theory with practice and enable students to further develop their programming skills.

Syllabus

Schedule

Week	Topic	Assignment
1	introduction / overview (1.1-1.11)	assignment #1 (8/31 F)
2	C/C++ programming languages and tools
3	processes and threads (2.1-2.2)	assignment #2 (9/14 F)
4	thread synchronization (2.3-2.4)
5	scheduling (2.5)
6	memory management (4.1-4.2)	midterm (10/5 F)
7	virtual memory: paging and segmentation (4.3, 4.8)	assignment #3 (10/8 M)
8	page replacement algorithms (4.4-4.7)
9	I/O (5.1-5.9)	assignment #4 (10/24 W)
10	file systems (6.1-6.4)
11	multiprocessor systems (8.1-8.3)	assignment #5 (11/9 F)
12	Unix / Linux (10.1-10.8)
13	[break]
14	Windows / IA-32 (11.1-11.10)	assignment #6 (12/7 F)
15	deadlocks (3.1-3.7)
16		final exam (12/14 F, 8:00 - 11:00 am)

Textbook and Resources

• Textbook:  A. S. Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2001. 
  Book web page, including slides.
• Recommended Reading:
  • Maurice J. Bach, The Design of the UNIX Operating System, Prentice Hall, 1990.
  • Mark E. Russinovich and David A. Solomon, Microsoft Windows Internals, Microsoft Press, 2005.
  • Intel IA-32 architecture manuals
• Software: 
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Service Pack 6 download
  • Visual C++ quick guide
  • The MSDN on-line help contains extremely helpful documentation on the Win32 API and MFC.
  • C library reference
  • Another C library reference (including low-level I/O functions)
  • Rename a VC++ project

Assignments

To gain practical experience with the principles of the course, students will implement several assignments in C/C++.  As shown in the grading chart, code will be graded on whether it compiles, runs, produces the expected behavior, is well documented, and and is written cleanly.  Your code must compile and run on Visual C++ 6.0 SP6.

To turn in your assignment, send an email to assign@assign.ece.clemson.edu (and cc the instructor and grader) with the subject line "ECE329-1,#n" (without quotes), where 'n' is the assignment number.  You may leave the body of the email blank.  Attach a zip file containing a readme.txt file (listing the names of the files in your project along with a brief description of how to run your code and what output should be expected), and all of the files needed to compile your project (such as *.h, *.c, *.cpp, *.rc, *.dsp, *.dsw; do not include *.ncb, *.opt, *.plg, *.aps, or the res, Debug, or Release directories).  You must send this email from your Clemson account, because the assign server is not smart enough to know who you are if you use another account.  Be sure that this file is actually attached to the email rather than being automatically included in the body of the email (Eudora, for example, has been known include files inline, but this behavior can be turned off).  Also, be sure to change the extension of your zip file (e.g., change .zip to _zip) so that the server does not block the attachment!!!  We cannot grade what we do not receive.  (Also be sure that you're not hiding extensions for known types; in Windows explorer, uncheck the box "Tools.Folder Options.View.Hide extensions for known file types".)

Assignments:

• Assignment #1 (simulated Unix shell)
• Assignment #2 (file system basics)
  strftime in <time.h> might also be helpful
  Clarification:  rm should prompt if read only; chmod must be user or root; touch should set modification time; mkfs should warn before clobbering an existing file system; mount -p option is not available on Linux, should just be mount with no arguments.
  Be sure to use binary mode when opening file:  http://www.cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-textbinary.html 
• Assignment #3 (simulated file system)
  fgetpos and fsetpos might also be helpful
  Clarification:  Once files are removed, your file system will be fragmented.  When writing, new files should use the first free contiguous chunk of the file system that is large enough to hold the file.  Your file system should work with arbitrarily sized files, up to a total file system size of 4 GB.
• Assignment #4 (mutexes, semaphores, and threads)
  Producer and consumer should generate their own random numbers, rather than share a random number.
• Assignment #5 (runnable:  more multithreading)
  Runnable::~Runnable() should call Stop() and then return (no need to wait).
  bool StopRequested() const should be a method of the Runnable base class.
  BaseRun should contain a loop in which it waits for Start to be called before it calls MainRoutine.
  There is no need to handle Ok or Cancel explicitly; the framework should automatically call all the destructors, which should cause the Runnable destructor to stop the thread if it is running.
  Future:  Require keyboards shortcuts on Start and Stop buttons to allow them to be pressed quickly
• Assignment #6 (buffer cache and running job in background)

Instructor: Stan Birchfield, 207-A Riggs Hall, 656-5912, email:  stb at clemson
Office hours:  4:00-5:00pm, MTWThF, or by appointment
Grader: Vidya Murali, 015 Riggs Hall, vmurali at clemson
Lectures: 8:00-9:00am MWF, 223 Riggs Hall