ACS-3931/3-001 Fall 2007

Administrivia

Instructor: Alex Brodsky     Office: 3D17
E-mail: acs3931@acs.uwinnipeg.ca     Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 16:00-17:00
Class Meeting Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 14:30-15:45     Room No: 4M39
Course Group: Email acs3931@acs.uwinnipeg.ca to receive an invite.

Midterm Exam: Tuesday, October 16, 14:30-15:45
Final Exam: Friday, December 14, 2007, 13:30-16:30

The course official course outline is available here.

Assignments

There will be three assignments throughout the course. All assignments are due at 17:00h on the following non-negotiable due dates:

Description Due Date
Assignment 1 Multiprogramming with Threads
Counter.java
Queue.java 		October 2, 2007
Assignment 2 Mutual Exclusion, Synchronization, and IPC
Lock.java interface (for JDK 1.4.2),
Condition.java interface (for JDK 1.4.2)
Solution 		October 30, 2007
Assignment 3 Implementing a File System
Myth.java,
iFS.java,
uFS.java,
Block.java,
DiskSim.java,
FSUtil.java
 November 27, 2007

Late Assignments

Assignments will not be accepted after the due date.

Submitting Assignments

Assignments must be submitted in both paper and electronic form. Each assignment will specify what files to submit and how they should be named.

Resources

No text book is required for this course. However the one of the following texts is strongly recommended:

  1. Recommended : Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne, "Operating System Concepts with Java, 7th ed.", John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2007, ISBN 0-471-76907-X.
  2. Recommended : Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne, "Operating System Concepts with Java, 6th ed.", John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2004, ISBN 0-471-48905-0.
  3. Alternative : Silberschatz et al, "Operating System Concepts (any edition)", John Wiley & Sons Inc., (any year).
  4. Alternative : Tanenbaum, "Modern Operating Systems (any edition)", Prentice Hall, (any year).

Additional helpful material may be found in: Bryant & O'Hallaron, "Computer Systems: A Programmers Perspective", Prentice Hall, 2003, ISBN 0-13-034074-X.

If you find additional websites that you think may be helpful for the course, let me know and I will add them here.

Marking Scheme

A course mark will be assigned based on three assignments, a written midterm, and a written final examination. Each student has the choice of one of the two marking schemes; the marking scheme most beneficial to each student will be used.

Assignments Midterm Final
Marking Scheme I 30% 20% 50%
Marking Scheme II 30% 0% 70%

Midterm and Final Exams

The midterm exam will be held on Tuesday, October 16, 2007, and the final exam will be held on Friday, December 14, 2007, from 13:30 to 16:30.

For both exams Photo Identification is required. No paper or electronic electronic aids, such as dictionaries, calculators or talking slide rulers, are allowed.

Penalties for Academic Misconduct

Students caught cheating on an assignment or an exam will be assigned a mark of 0 for that assignment or exam. Furthermore, the case will be forwarded to the department chair for further prosecution resulting in a possible suspension or expulsion from the university.


Do not cheat or plagiarize!

To avoid the possibility of plagiarism here are some rules of thumb that you should follow:

  1. Put away pens, pencils, and keyboards when discussing the problem with others.
  2. Acknowledge all help that you received on the assignment in an acknowledgments section at the end of your write-up.
  3. Look at other code all you want, but do not copy it.
  4. If you are unsure about something ask the instructor!