CS422S: Operating Systems Organization (Spring 2001)

Department of Computer Science

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Washington University in St. Louis

Instructor

Fred Kuhns

Email: fredk at cse dot wustl dot edu
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 4:00 to 5:00, Bryan 504

Graders

Dante Cannarozzi,

Email: djc2@cec.wustl.edu
Office Hours: Sunday 4:00 - 6:00 PM, Lopata 408 (Graders Office), or by appointment through e-mail.

Matthew Hampton,

Email: mph2@cs.wustl.edu
Office Hours: Monday 4:00 - 6:00 PM, Lopata 408 (Graders Office), or by appointment through e-mail.

William (Russ) Harvey,

Email: wrh1@cec.wustl.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 5:00 - 7:00 PM, Lopata 408 (Graders Office), or by appointment through e-mail.

Evan Keibler,

Email: emk1@cec.wustl.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 5:00 - 7:00 PM, Lopata 408 (Graders Office), or by appointment through e-mail.

Greg Kinasewitz ,

Email: gtk1@cec.wustl.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 6:00 - 8:00 PM, Lopata 408 (Graders Office), or by appointment through e-mail.

Locations

• Classroom -- Cupples II Room 217, Tue/Thu from 2:30-4:00pm
• CS422 Newsgroup and newsgroup archives
• Final exam, Tuesday, May 8, 2001, Cupples II Rm 217, 10:30AM - 12:30PM

Course Description

Prerequisites

• CS 241 - Algorithms and Data Structures
• CS 306 - Processing Systems and Structures
• Or equivalent experience in software development and a basic understanding of computer architecture.

Notes and Reference Materials

1. Course Syllabus (PS or PDF)
2. CS 422 Spring 2000 Web Page

Texts

Required:

• Operating System, Fourth Edition, by William Stallings

Also Useful:

• Operating Systems
  1. Modern Operating Systems, Andrew Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 1992.
  2. Distributed Operating Systems, Andrew Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 1994.
  3. Operating System Concepts, 4th edition, Silberschatz and Galvin, Addison Wesley, 1994.
  4. Advanced Concepts in Operating Systems, Mukesh Singhal, Niranjan G. Shivaratri, McGraw Hill, 1994.
  5. UNIX Internals: The New Frontiers, Uresh Vahalia, Prentice Hall, 1996.
  6. The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System, M.K. McKusick and K. Bostic and M.J. Karels and J.S. Quarterman, Addison-Wesley, 1996.
  7. The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System, S. J. Leffler and M.K. McKusick and M.J. Karels and J.S. Quarterman, Addison-Wesley, 1989.
  8. The Design of the UNIX Operating System, Maurice J. Bach, Prentice Hall, 1986.
  9. Inside Windows NT, 2nd edition, David Solomon, Microsoft Press, 1993.
• Programming Systems
  1. Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, W. Richard Stevens, Addison Wesley, 1992.
  2. UNIX Network Programming, 2nd edition, W. Richard Stevens, Prentice Hall, 1998.
  3. UNIX System V Network Programming, Steve Rago, Addison-Wesley, 1993.
• C and C++ Programming
  1. The C++ Primer: Second Edition, Stan Lippman, Addison-Wesley, 1991.
  2. The C++ Programming Language: Second Edition, Bjarne Stroustrup, Addison-Wesley, 1991.
  3. Effective C++, Scott Meyers, Addison-Wesley, 1992.
  4. The C Programming Language, 2nd edition, Kernighan and Ritchie, Prentice Hall, 1991.

Grading

The relative weighting of the components of the grades is:

• Exams - 40%
• Programming Assignments - 40%
• Homework, Quizes and Class participation - 20%

Exams

There will be two exams: a mid-term and a final. Each exam will be worth 20% of your grade. Material tested on the final exam will be comprehensive.

Programming Projects

There will be 4-6 programming projects. Three of the assignments (called projects below) will involve substantial programming. Students are assumed to be competent in C or C++ and familiar with the UNIX operating system.

The general criteria for the grading of the programs is given below:

Project Design 40%

Are all conditions covered (errors, operations specified in assignment)?

Have synchronization and process/thread scheduling issues been addressed?

Have Proper measurement and/or data collection techniques been used?

Does the overall design and implementation demonstrate an understanding of the underlying issues?

Does the solution demonstrate insight or have novel approaches been used?

Structure 15%

Is the software logically structured?

Is it rational and is there a sufficient use of comments?

Have potential maintainability or portability issues been addressed?

Documentation - 25%

Is there a supplied README file and any other files required by the project?

Does the analysis address all required issues and is it insightful?

Is the documentation logically structured and is it understandable?

Have instructions been followed?

Program Operation - 20%

Does the program work or does it terminate in an error?

Does it accept the proper parameters?

Are the results displayed properly?

Are the results correct or reasonable?

Homeworks, Quizes, and Class Attendance

There will be weekly homework assignments from the required text and an occasional short graded quiz. The quizes can be announced or unannounced. Therefore, it is essential that you attend class in order to prepare for the quizes and exams. There will be no makeup quizes.

Late Submissions

Homework and projects may be submitted up to three days late. However, for each day late 5 points will be deducted. After the third day the homework or project will not be accepted.

Occasionally, in special situations, arrangements for a late submission can be made if requested well in advance of the due date.

Syllabus (Subject to Change)

Homework Assignments

Send text file with questions and answers to cs422@cec.wustl.edu or make other arrangements with the graders. Below are listed the homework assignments and due dates.

• Assignment 1 - Operating Systems Overview.
  Chapter 2 Problems 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5. Answers.
  Assignments Due date: No later than Midnight on Thursday, 1 Feb.

  cat my_homework1 | Mail -s 'Submit: Homework1' cs422@cec.wustl.edu

• Assignment 2 - Processes, Threads and Scheduling
  Chapter 3 Problems - 3.4 and 3.10
  Chapter 4 Problems - 4.1, 4.4 and 4.7
  Chapter 9 Problems - 9.5 and 9.10
  Assignments Due date: No later than Midnight on Thursday, 15 Feb.

  cat my_homework2 | Mail -s 'Submit: Homework2' cs422@cec.wustl.edu

• Assignment 3 - Multiprocessor and Real-time Scheduling
  Chapter 10 Problems - 10.3
  Chapter 10 Review Questions: - 10.2
  Assignments Due date: No later than Midnight on Thursday, 22 Feb.

  cat my_homework3 | Mail -s 'Submit: Homework3' cs422@cec.wustl.edu

• Assignment 4 - Synchronization.
  Chapter 5 Problems: 5.3, 5.5 and 5.8.
  For problem number 5.8, use the following code:

  0      global integer arrays q[N], turn[N-1];
  Pi:
  1      while (true) { ...
  2        for j = 1 ... N - 1 do {
  3          q[i] = j
  4          turn[j] = i
  5          REDO:
  6          for k = 1 ... N, k != i {
  7            if ((q[k] >= j) and (turn[j] == i)) goto REDO
  8          }
  9        }
  10       q[i] = N;
  11       Critical Section for Process i  (CSi)
  12       q[i] = 0;
  13     }
  

  There are a total of N concurrent processes with the i_th process denoted by P_i. The arrays q[n] and turn[n-1] are accessible by all process. The elements of q and turn are initialized to zero (0).

  Each process has it's own local copies of the integers j and k. Within the pseudocode the value i represents the P_i process. In other words, were we say:

  Pi:
  ...
  for k = 1 ... N, k != i {
  

  This is to be interpreted as: in Process i, k will take on all values between 1 and N (inclusive) with the exception of i. For example if N = 10 and i = 3 (P₃), then k will take on the consecutive values {1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}.

  Keep in mind that each process may be interrupted any number of times or we could even implement using a multiprocessor system. No constraints are placed on ordering with the exception that the load and store commands are assumed to be atomic.

  Complete the problem as written in the book and also show that if we assume each process "continually tries" to obtain the lock then there will be linear waiting. In order for a process to continually try we require the OS scheduler to ensure that each process is able to obtain a fair percentage of the CPU time, although we do not define what fair means.

  
  Assignments Due date: No later than Midnight on Saturday, 3 March

  cat my_homework4 | Mail -s 'Submit: Homework4' cs422@cec.wustl.edu

• Assignment 5 - File Management
  Chapter 12 Problems: 12.3 and 12.7
  Assignments Due date: No later than Midnight on Thursday, 12 April.

  cat my_homework5 | Mail -s 'Submit: Homework5' cs422@cec.wustl.edu

• Assignment 6 - I/O
  Chapter 11 Problems: 11.6 and 11.9
  Assignments Due date: No later than Midnight on Thursday, 19 April.

  cat my_homework6 | Mail -s 'Submit: Homework6' cs422@cec.wustl.edu

• Assignment 7 - Disk I/O
  Answer the following question:
  Assume you have a fast-wide SCSI-II disk that operates at 20MB/sec. The particulars are 7200 RPM, 512 B/sector, 160 sectors/track, 7000 cylinders, 20 tracks/cylinder and an average seek time of 8msec. Estimate the I/O operations per second and the effective transfer rate for a random-access workload that reads individual sectors that are scattered across the disk.

  
  Assignments Due date: No later than Midnight on Thursday, 26 April.

  cat my_homework7 | Mail -s 'Submit: Homework7' cs422@cec.wustl.edu

Programming Assignments

• Process Creation and IPC Usage Due: No Later than midnight Sunday, 11 February 2001. For a look at my solution see lab1.c, compile using the command

  gcc -o lab1 lab1.c
  

  In this example I tried to use several different constructs in C to introduce you to the language and system programming. I have used MACROs, inlined functions, structs, enums, function pointers and different system calls. I have also replaced pause() with sigsuspend() which removes one of the race conditions you ran into.
• Process Performance Measurements Due: 27 Feb. 2001 . For a look at my solution see Lab2, compile using the command

  make all
  

• Clock routine and callout queue processing (i.e. timer queues) Due: March 25, 2001 (3 weeks). Here is an example of how to`use pthread mutexes and condition variables: (Example Code)
• Logging facility using memory mapped files. Due: Midnight April 29, 2001 (2 weeks).

Extra Credit Assignment

Example OS features include virtual memory, page replacement algorithms, disk scheduling algorithms, real-time scheduling, VNODE architecture, SVR4 Streams, BSD sockets, NT kernel objects, W2000 scheduling, or one of your choosing. There are plenty of references in your book for all of these topics.

Due Date: Same as Project Number 4, Midnight April 29, 2001

Requirements:

1. Abstract - one paragraph providing an overview of your report.

2. Introduction - This should tell me what the report is about and why I care.

3. Body - This must be a technical discussion of the topic. If you are reporting on a specific operating system then do your best to anser the following questions (if you could not find sufficient info then indicate so):
   • Processes management - does it support threads, if so user or kernel or both?
   • Memory Management - does it support virutal memory, is the memory paged or segmented or both?
   • Secondary storage management - Is memory backed by persistent storage?
   • I/O management - Is I/O buffered?
   • File management - Can you create and manipulate files?
   • Protection system - Is access to the system controlled?
   • Networking subsystem - Can the target platform communicate over a network?
   • User Interface - How do uses interact with the system?

   If you are reporting on a specific OS mechanism or algorithm then describe it in detail. Provide a comparison to alternative approaches.

4. Conclusion - What is your opinion about your selected topic. Is it a "good" approach or environment? Are there environmental or platform specific issues?