Course Information
Andy Wang
COP 5611
Advanced Operating Systems
Contact Information
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Andy Wang (awang@cs.fsu.edu)
Office: 269 Love Building
Office hours:
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MF 4-5pm, after class, also by
appointments
Class website:
http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~awang/courses/cop5611_s2016
Objectives
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Learn classic and current OS literature
Gain experience in doing OS research
Develop projects that lead to
publishable results
Prerequisites
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COP 4610 (operating systems)
CDA 3101 (computer organizations)
Knowledge of the UNIX environment
Proficiency in C
Course Materials
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Lecture notes and papers
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Posted on the class website
No required textbooks
Recommended Textbooks
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Tanenbaum and Van Steen,
Distributed Systems Principles and
Paradigms
Singhal and Shivaratri, Advanced
Concepts in Operating Systems
Background Textbooks
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Tanenbaum, Modern Operating
Systems
Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne,
Operating System Concepts
Nutt, Operating Systems: A Modern
Perspective
Kernel-Hacking Aids
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Nutt, Kernel Projects for Linux
Kernighan, Ritchie, The C
Programming Language
Maxwell, Linux Core Kernel
Commentary
Corbet, Rubini, and Kroah-Hartman,
Linux Device Drivers
Grading
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Paper summaries and critiques
Project
Peer evaluation of projects
Exam 1
Exam 2
Final
5%
40%
5%
10%
10%
30%
Individual Critiques
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Ten one-page single-spaced critiques
on recent papers (< 1 yr), from the
following venues, or from other venues
with prior approval:
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Conferences: SOSP, OSDI, EuroSys,
HotOS, HotStorage, HotCloud, Usenix
FAST, Usenix ATC, Sigmetrics, ASPLOS,
Usenix Security, StorageSS, MobiCom,
MobiSys
Side Note: Research Cycle
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Having an idea
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Submit to WIP
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6 months later
Funded
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2 months later
Submit a grant
proposal to NSF
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Evaluation done
WIP published
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3 months later
Prototype built
3 months later
Submit to a
conference
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6 months later
6 months later
Paper published
Critiques
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One due each week
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Both in class and through turnitin.com
(via blackboard), for the first 10 weeks
Please include your name, homework
number, submission date, paper title,
publication venue
Critiques
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Need to contain the following sections
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Summary
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Intriguing aspects of the paper
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Problems/existing & new approaches/results
Observations/trends/assumptions/techniques
How can the research be improved?
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Techniques/experiments/handling of corner
cases and assumptions
Project
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You need to develop a project in
teams of two or three
It should take about at least 100 to 120
hours
Goal:
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Publishable results
Types of Papers
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Survey papers
Position papers
Simulation papers
Measurement papers
System papers
Some Example Projects
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Feasibility of using sound cues for
debugging operating systems
Feasibility study of applying economic
models for distributed resource
management
Feasibility study of life-long storage of
sensory inputs
Weekly Project Reports
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Per person
Demonstrate steady progress
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Papers read
Obstacles encountered
New ideas
Software pieces built
Experiments
Project Proposal
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Due on the 5th
week
Group presentation
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All team members
are required to
participate
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2-page written
proposal
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Motivation
The state-of-the-art
Methodology
Expected results
Show stoppers
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Plan B
Timeline
Project Proposal
Include:
 5-10 references
 Division of labor amongst teams
Project Presentation
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During the last two weeks of the
course
12 to 15-page (max) written paper due
by the last lecture (double column,
single-space, 10-pt font)
Critiques on two other projects, not
including yours
Exams
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In-class and closed-book, unless
specified otherwise
Essays and short answers
Open research questions
Entrance Exam
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Make sure that you have the
necessary background
Too late to drop the class after exam 1
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You need to pay extra to make up the
dropped credit hours
Overall Expectations
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Not like an undergraduate course
Need to take your own initiative
Lots of time spent on reading, writing,
and working on your project
Need to limit your course load
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Find out about taking research hours
A Few Words on Plagiarism
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Please don’t plagiarize; that means
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No cutting and pasting
No Wiki references
No paraphrasing, moving prepositional
phrases around, replacing verbs, etc.
Dire consequences; potential loss of
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Grade, assistantship, on-campus jobs,
student VISA, dormitory
A Few Words on Plagiarism
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Alternatives
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Skip a HW (0.5% of the course grade)
Drop classes, jobs on the side
Ask for project extension due to an
excused absence
Switch majors/schools
A Few Words on Plagiarism
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My prosecution record: 100%
This is your only warning
Typically
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Tempted to plagiarize after exam 1
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I will be busier, but SafeAssign won’t
Will see an ‘I’ grade at the end