General Information
| Professor: | Alden Jackson, 132F Nightingale |
| Time and location: | Tuesday and Friday; 9:50 am - 11:30 am; Richards Hall 458 |
| Office Hours: | Kariotis 208: Tuesday: 1:00-2:30 and Thursday 10:00-11:00 or by appointment via appointlet.com |
| Teaching Assistants: | Kriti Gurubacharya, Mayuresh Chandrankant Khendkar, Sunny Shukla, Brian Vullo |
| TA Office Hours and Locations: | Monday: 5:00pm-7pm, SL 003 Tuesday: 3:30pm-5:30pm, RY 456 Wednesday: 1pm-3pm, BK 204; 4:30pm-6pm, RY 456 Thursday: 4:30pm-6:00pm, SL 003 Saturday and Sunday: 10am-Noon, KA 202 Google calendar of TA Office Hours |
| Class forum: | Piazza |
There are other sections of this course being taught by Professor Nat Tuck. While the same overall information will be covered over the courses, they are not in sync.
Course Goals
We will be exploring many low level components of computer systems and learning to think like a systems programmer. This course is very applied. We will be writing a significant amount of code.
Registrar Description: Introduces the basic design of computing systems, computer operating systems, and assembly language using a RISC architecture. Describes caches and virtual memory. Covers the interface between assembly language and high-level languages, including call frames and pointers. Covers the use of system calls and systems programming to show the interaction with the operating system. Covers the basic structures of an operating system, including application interfaces, processes, threads, synchronization, inter-process communication, deadlock, memory management, file systems, and input/output control.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, you will:
- Have a working knowledge of C/C++.
- Be comfortable working in the terminal in a Unix environment.
- Build and use tools for inspecting and debugging programs at a low level.
- Be comfortable with concepts like concurrency and parallelism
- Better understand operating systems
- Get some experience working on a large scale codebase.
- Position yourself for jobs as a systems programmer
Course Prerequisites
- CS 1500, CS 2510.
- You should be comfortable using a text editor of your choice
- You should be willing to work with others, share your thoughts, and ask questions
- You should have basic knowledge in github/git, know how to use a text-based editor, and how to compile, run, and debug programs.
Academic Integrity and Non-Discrimination
Students and instructors are to follow the Northeastern policies on these important issues.
- Northeastern Equal Opportunity Policy - This classroom is a safe space for the instructor and students to talk about ideas, share viewpoints, and learn.
- Northeastern Academic Integrity Policy - You only cheat yourself if you are not honest. Most often cheating occurs when an individual falls behind or perhaps has other circumstances occurring in their life. Please consult the instructor before ever considering cheating.
- If you are caught cheating, I have to report the violation, and you will receive a 0 in the course.
- Always remember, if you use any external sources, you must cite them.
- You may not copy anyone else's code under any circumstances.
- You may not permit any other student to see any part of your program, except when seeking assistance in debugging.
- You may not permit yourself to see any part of another student's program, except when providing assistance in debugging.
- You may not post a public question to Piazza that contains any part of your code.
- Student Code of Conduct: Students and instructors will follow the following guide for how we conduct ourselves. This is to create a respectful environment where everyone can learn.
While students are encouraged to discuss course materials, no plagiarism/copying is allowed on assignments or labs. In particular,
This class has very strict standards for borrowing code: You may not use other students' code. If you borrow anything for use in your homework from a textbook or an online source, you must have a citation. A good guideline is that if you take more than three lines of code from some source, you must include the information on where it came from. A URL or a notation (e.g., "MATLAB help files") is fine. If it is an entire function, note it at the beginning of the code segment and include any original credit information. Provide a qualitative description of what you used, and what you changed/contributed. If you have a question about what is considered a violation of this policy, ASK!
Make-Up Policy
Students participating in varsity athletics(this does not include club sports or intramurals) or other University sanctioned events may have the need for a make-up. Please contact me in advance of such events, so that appropriate accommodations can be made.
I recognize that unplanned life events and circumstances do occur. If this is the case, please e-mail me privately.
E-mailing me asking for extensions just because is unfortunately not fair to your classmates. The 10% penalty for each day late has to be enforced so no one receives an unfair advantage.
Git commits are used to determine the state of your repository at the time assignment is due. For commits after the deadline to be included (i.e. turning in your work late) and incur a penalty, you need to explicitly inform me in email to a.jackson (at) northeastern.edu (an equivalent to physically handing in the work late). The email must include the commit hash of the final commit for the assignment.
Evaluation
This is course about writing code. Therfore, most of your evaluation will be on the code you produce.
The grading distribution used for this course is below. You will find the grade you earn in this course on blackboard .
- In-Class Activity: 10%
- In Class Labs: 15%
- Labs are due before class of the following week.
- Quizzes: 10%
- Assignments: Each worth remaining % / # Assignments (Some assignments may be worth more depending on the degree of difficulty)
Final grades will be assigned based on the following scale...
AA-B+BB-C+CC-D+DD-FSchedule
The following is our tentative schedule for the course, some changes should be expected throughout the semester. I will announce in class or through Piazza any major changes.
- To get the assignments/activities for the course, there will be a link provided for each that you must first click on and accept the assignment. The link for Assignments will be in the schedule below. The link for each lab will be on the web page for that lab.
- For lab classes, do not do a 'git pull' until class starts (I often make changes and corrections until moments before class begins.)
| Week | Date | Lecture and Readings | Assignments | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tues, Jan 7, 2020 | Lecture 1 - An Overview of Computer Systems | ||
| Fri, Jan. 10, 2020 | Lab 1 - Terminal Overview | |||
| 2 | Tues, Jan 14, 2020 | Lecture 2 - The C Programming Language | ||
| Fri, Jan 17, 2020 | Lab 2 - C Data Structures | |||
| 3 | Tues, Jan 21, 2020 | Lecture 3 - Assembly and Machine Representation | ||
| Fri, Jan 24, 2020 | Lab 3 - Assembly | |||
| 4 | Tues, Jan 28, 2020 | Lecture 4 - Compilers and Linkers | ||
| Fri, Jan 31, 2020 | Lab 4 - Code Generation | |||
| 5 | Tues, Feb 4, 2020 | Lecture 5 - Processor and Processes | ||
| Fri, Feb 7, 2020 | Lecture 6 - The Memory Hierarchy | |||
| 6 | Tues, Feb. 11, 2020 | Lecture 6 cont'd - The Memory Hierarchy | ||
| Fri, Feb. 14, 2020 | ||||
| 7 | Tues, Feb. 18, 2020 | Lecture 7 - Virtual Memory and Dynamic Memory Allocation | A6 - Allocators 1 (due. Mar. 13 at 11:59pm) | |
| Fri, Feb. 21, 2020 | Lab 6 - Allocators | |||
| 8 | Tues, Feb. 25, 2020 | Lecture 8 - Concurrency | ||
| Fri, Feb. 27 2020 | Lab 7 - Multiprocessing | |||
| 8 | Tues, Mar. 2, 2020 | SPRING BREAK | ||
| Fri, Mar. 6 2020 | SPRING BREAK | |||
| 9 | Tues, Mar.10, 2020 | Lecture 9 - Optimizations and Parallelism with SIMD | ||
| Fri, Mar. 13, 2020 | Lab 8 - AVX | A6 - Allocators 1 (due. Mar. 13 at 11:59pm) | ||
| 10 | Tues, Mar. 17, 2020 | No Class | ||
| Fri, Mar. 20, 2020 | Lecture 10 - OpenMP/GPUs | |||
| 11 | Tues, Mar. 24, 2020 | Lecture 10 - OpenMP/GPUs continued | ||
| Fri, Mar. 27, 2020 | Lab 9 - Parallel Programming | |||
| 12 | Tues, Mar. 31, 2020 | Lecture 11 - Operating Systems and xv6 and Schedulers | ||
| Fri, Apr. 3, 2020 | Lab 10 - xv6 | |||
| 13 | Tues, Apr. 7, 2020 | Lecture 12 - TBD | ||
| Fri, Apr. 10, 2020 | Lab 11 - TBD | |||
| 13 | Tues, Apr. 14, 2020 | Flex Day - TBD |
Reading Materials
There is no required textbook for this course. However, these resources are recommended:
- (free) Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces
- (Recommended by Mike Shah) Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (3rd Edition)
- Low Level Programming
- (free) xv6 Text Revision 10
Classroom Environment
To create and preserve a classroom atmosphere that optimizes teaching and learning, all participants share a responsibility in creating a civil and non-disruptive forum for the discussion of ideas. Students are expected to conduct themselves at all times in a manner that does not disrupt teaching or learning. Your comments to others should be constructive and free from harassing statements. You are encouraged to disagree with other students and the instructor, but such disagreements need to respectful and be based upon facts and documentation (rather than prejudices and personalities). The instructor reserves the right to interrupt conversations that deviate from these expectations. Repeated unprofessional or disrespectful conduct may result in a lower grade or more severe consequences. Part of the learning process in this course is respectful engagement of ideas with others.
No social media; No cell phones. Not only does it distract you, it distracts others.
Title IX
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects individuals from sex or gender-based discrimination, including discrimination based on gender-identity, in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Northeastern’s Title IX Policy prohibits Prohibited Offenses, which are defined as sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship or domestic violence, and stalking. The Title IX Policy applies to the entire community, including male, female, transgender students, faculty and staff.
If you or someone you know has been a survivor of a Prohibited Offense, confidential support and guidance can be found through University Health and Counseling Services staff (http://www.northeastern.edu/uhcs/) and the Center for Spiritual Dialogue and Service clergy members (http://www.northeastern.edu/spirituallife/). By law, those employees are not required to report allegations of sex or gender-based discrimination to the University.
Alleged violations can be reported non-confidentially to the Title IX Coordinator within The Office for Gender Equity and Compliance at: titleix@northeastern.edu and/or through NUPD (Emergency 617.373.3333; Non-Emergency 617.373.2121). Reporting Prohibited Offenses to NUPD does NOT commit the victim/affected party to future legal action.
Faculty members are considered "responsible employees" at Northeastern University, meaning they are required to report all allegations of sex or gender-based discrimination to the Title IX Coordinator.
In case of an emergency, please call 911.
Please visit http://www.northeastern.edu/titleix for a complete list of reporting options and resources both on- and off-campus.
Accessibility
Part of what makes Northeastern University unique, is our diverse cohort of students, faculty, and staff. In order to support this, Northeastern is committed to providing equal access and support to all qualified students through the provision of reasonable accommodations so that each student may fully participate in the University experience. Students who have disabilities who wish to receive academic services and/or accommodations should visit the Disability Resource Center at 20 Dodge Hall or call (617) 373-2675. If you have already done so, please provide your letter from the DRC to me early in the semester so that I can arrange those accommodations.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my colleagues Professors Mike Shaw, Laney Strange and Nate Derbinski for their assistance, templates and the code I used to create this page.