Graduate Operating Systems (CSE 60641)

Course Overview

This is a graduate course in the theory and practice of operating system design and implementation. We will discuss a wide variety of advanced technical concepts found in the field of operating systems, including (often somewhat older) seminal papers and more recent (hot and emerging) topics. Such topics will include memory management, storage and file systems, concurrency, virtualization, distributed systems, and mobile/embedded systems. The course focuses on advanced topics in operating systems and it is assumed that students have already taken a rigorous undergraduate course in operating systems. The course also emphasizes essential skills for a new researcher, including literature research, reading, analyzing, and discussing research papers, communicating research ideas, etc. The course also includes a semester-long project in the area of systems. The prerequisites for this course are graduate standing or consent of the instructor, an undergraduate class in operating systems (e.g., CSE30341 at Notre Dame), and proficiency in a systems programming language such as C, C++, or Java.

The goals for each student in this course are:

• Describe and evaluate advanced concepts in operating systems design and implementation (using course readings and evaluated in midterm and final).
• Compare and contrast competing architectures and implementations of operating system components (using class discussions, evaluated in midterm and final).
• Describe important historical developments in operating systems in terms of architectural philosophies, influental personalities, and well-known systems (using readings and discussions, evaluated in midterm, final, annotated bibliography, draft paper, and final paper).
• Design and evaluate a small piece of operating systems research with some guidance (project milestones).
• Effectively communicate research results, both orally and in writing (class discussions, progress reports, draft and final paper, final presentation).

The course does not use a textbook; instead, students will read a selection of research papers. Each class period will involve lecture and discussion on the papers assigned for that day. Every student must be prepared to discuss the papers assigned each class period.

Course Structure:

In Fall 2020, the course will deviate from the usual format due to the effects of the current pandemic; specifically, students will have multiple options:

• In-Person (Synchronous) Lectures: The course always followed a flipped approach, where students read 1-3 papers in preparation for each lecture and the lecture is then used to discuss certain relevant aspects and details of these papers. Healthy students on campus will follow this traditional approach.


• Live Zoom (Synchronous) Lectures: For anyone off-campus or otherwise unable to attend class (e.g., quarantine), the lecture will be live-streamed and students via Zoom will participate in the lectures and discussions as if they were in the classroom.


• Asynchronous Lectures: For anyone off-campus in a different time zone, there is also the option to watch the recording of a lecture. In this case, to ensure that students and instructor will have an opportunity to interact, students must join one office hour per lecture on average to discuss the paper assignments, ask questions, etc. These interactions may be in small groups or individual if preferred. Typically, students should expect to spend 10-20 minutes per office hour call.