CSCI 432 :: Operating Systems

CSCI 432 - Fall 2025

Operating Systems

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Calendar

The table below lists the topics we will discuss in class and the readings associated with each topic. Readings should be completed before their associated class meeting. (Chapter readings refer to the course textbook.)

Please note that some readings are PDFs that can only be accessed using a campus computer, the VPN, or the provided username and password. If you experience problems accessing any of the assigned papers, please let your professor know as soon as possible.

Lecture slides will be posted after each class. Click on the topic to access the slides (on campus/VPN/password only).

Note that all future dates and topics are tentative and subject to change!

Date	Topic	Readings and Assignments

[1] 9/4	Course Overview	Skim Ch 1-2

[2] 9/8	Processes and Atomic Actions	Butler Lampson. Hints for Computer System Design. ACM SOSP 1983. Background info: Ch 3-5, 13, 25-26 Project 0 out

[3] 9/11	Mutexes and Locks	Background info: Ch 28

[4] 9/15	Monitors and CVs, Producers-Consumers	Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson. The UNIX Time-sharing System. CACM 1974. Background info: Ch 30 Project 0 due 9/16 at 11:59pm.

[5] 9/18	Producers-Consumers, RW Locks, Semaphores	Background info: Ch 31 Project 1 out

[6] 9/22	Semaphores, Implementing Threads	Background info: Ch 27

[7] 9/25	Implementing Locks	Project 1d (disk scheduler) due 9/25 at 11:59pm

[8] 9/29	Deadlock	Background info: Ch 32, 7-9 Stefan Savage, Mike Burrows, Greg Nelson, Patrick Sobalvarro, and Tom Anderson. Eraser: A Dynamic Data Race Detector for Multithreaded Programs. ACM TOCS 1997.

[9] 10/2	CPU Scheduling

[10] 10/6	Threads Wrapup and Review	Midterm Study Guide

[11] 10/9	No class	Project 1t (thread library) due 10/9 at 11:59pm. Writeup due 10/10.

[--] 10/13	Reading Days

[12] 10/16	Midterm in class

[13] 10/20	Intro to Memory	Background info: Ch 12-14 Project 2 out

[14] 10/23	Address Translation and Project 2	Background info: Ch 15, 22

[15] 10/27	Page Replacement and Dual-Mode Operation

[16] 10/30	Thrashing and Intro to VMs	Checkpoint due 10/30 at 11:59pm.

[17] 11/3	Virtual Machines	Paul Barham, Boris Dragovic, Keir Fraser, Steven Hand, Tim Harris, Alex Ho, Rolf Neugebauer, Ian Pratt, and Andrew Warfield. Xen and the Art of Virtualization. ACM SOSP 2003. OPTIONAL (no writeup required): Carl A. Waldspurger. Memory Resource Management in VMware ESX Server. ACM OSDI 2002. Background info: Appendix B (online only?)

[18] 11/6	Intro to Networks

[19] 11/10	Networks Wrapup/Resource Containers	Gaurav Banga, Peter Druschel, Jeffrey C. Mogul. Resource Containers: A New Facility for Resource Management in Server Systems. OSDI 1999. OPTIONAL (no writeup required): Dirk Merkel. Docker: Lightweight Linux Containers for Consistent Development and Deployment Background info: Ch 46-47

[20] 11/13	Intro to Security	Project 2 due 11/13 at 11:59pm. Writeup due 11/14.

[21] 11/17	Security	Project 3 out

[22] 11/20	Smashing the Stack tutorial (bring laptop to class)

[23] 11/24	Security wrapup/Files	Martin Rinard, Cristian Cadar, Daniel Dumitran, Daniel M. Roy, Tudor Leu, and William S. Beebee, Jr. Enhancing Server Availability and Security Through Failure-Oblivious Computing. USENIX OSDI 2004. Background info: Ch 39

[--] 11/27	THANKSGIVING

[24] 12/1	File Systems and Course Wrapup	Background info: Ch 40-43

[25] 12/4	Movie!	Pirates of Silicon Valley Project 3 due during Reading Days