The course will center around two basic entities:
readings
and a
final project.
For most every class, you will have to read one or more papers (as assigned), which we will then discuss in class. You will also have to write a review of each paper. The real key to the class will be your final project: a mini-research project on the topic of your choice. Though we will provide some suggestions, you are strongly encouraged to come up with a topic of your own (after all, that's what research is all about). More details will be available below in the weeks to come.
Tuesdays09/12 Hydra 09/19 Disco 09/26 FFS , LFS 10/03 RAID , Lottery 10/10 Scheduler Activations , Vax/VMS 10/17 Multics 10/24 No class 10/31 U-net 11/07 Cluster-based Services 11/14 AFS 11/21 Measurements of a Distributed FS 11/28 Coda 12/05 Data Security 12/12 TBA |
Thursdays09/14 Unix , Pilot 09/21 Exokernel I and II 09/28 Elephant 10/05 Resource Containers 10/12 Mach 10/19 Midterm Exam 10/26 RPC 11/02 Comparison of Amoeba and Sprite 11/09 NFS 11/16 NASD 11/23 No class - Thanksgiving! 11/30 Bayou 12/07 Data Encryption 12/14 TBA |
Some additional papers are available in the
Auxiliary Reading List.
You are not expected to read these unless you wish to learn more about a specific topic.
Finally, a collection of advice papers is (partly) available in the
Advice Papers List.
I highly recommend that you read these papers on your own; however, you will not be held responsible for them in any way. I will try to make all of these available electronically.
You will have three basic responsibilities for the readings covered in the course:
1 - Read the assigned papers before class.
Without doing so, discussion is a little more difficult.
2 - Form a discussion group.
You should have about four people in your group, and discuss each paper sometime before class meets.
When you have formed a group, please send me email with a list of group members.
3 - Write-up each paper.
Your
individual
write-up should consist of a short-essay answer to the question(s) posed. The write-up should
not
exceed half of a page in length. The list of questions to answer can be found
here.
Turn in your write up via email to myself and Jon (remzi@cs, ledlie@cs)
before
the class where we discuss the paper, with the
class and date in the subject line (e.g., 736 Reading 9/12).
Late write-ups will automatically receive a null score. Write-ups should be in
plain text.
Readings will probably be heavy up front, so make sure not to fall behind. That way, you will have more time towards to end of the semester to focus on your project.
A
project resources page
is also available.
The final project is the main focus of the course. You are expected to perform work which could eventually be suitable for publication in a major operating systems conference. In general, people should work in groups of size one or two -- I will not allow groups larger than that. Though we will provide some suggestions for you to pick from, you are encouraged to think of a project on your own, which we can help to refine. Project write-ups will be similar in format to a conference submission, and all will be entered into a class-wide mini-conference. The best papers will be presented to the class. More details are forthcoming.
Important Dates
Important dates for your project will be listed here.
|
Project Proposal
Status Meeting Presentation Write-up (Call For Papers) |
Friday 10/06
Week of 11/06 12/08 and 12/11 Monday 12/18 |
Here are links to some previous class's projects:
Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau's
,
Bart Miller's
and
Marvin Solomon's.
Last year's midterm is now available online
here
This year's midterm solutions are available
here
Assignment #0: Digital Picture
Assignment #1: Project Proposal
Assignment #2: Status Meeting
Assignment #3: Presentation
Assignment #4: Project Write-up (Call For Papers)