CS261: Research Topics in Operating Systems

New 11/24/98: Extended Abstracts

Professor: Margo Seltzer

• Margo I. Seltzer
• Pierce 110D
• margo@eecs.harvard.edu
• 617-496-5663

Teaching Fellow

• David Krinsky
• ESL 109
• krinsky@eecs.harvard.edu
• 617-495-5841

Prerequisites: Computer Science 161

This course is an introduction to operating system research.

Coursework

• Reading and discussing classic and current research papers.
• Homework assignments focusing on research methodology.
• Three quizzes (each one-half of a class).
• A Research Project of your choice.
• Mock Program Committee: reviewing your classmates' research papers.

Course Requirements

• 25% Class Participation
• 15% Quizzes (three quizzes; 5% each)
• 10% Homework Assignments
• 50% Final Project

Schedule and Reading List

Course Policies

• No late work
• Projects may be completed in teams
• Some homework assignments may be completed in teams.

Textbooks

• CS261 Reading List required (collection of papers for the course, available from the Science Center Stock Room)
• The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System optional
• Unix Internals: The New Frontiers optional

Lecture Notes

• September 22, 1998
  • Lottery Scheduling: Flexible, Proportional-Share Resource Management
  • lmbench: Portable Tools for Performance Analysis
• September 24, 1998
  • A Trace-Driven Analysis of the UNIX 4.2 BSD File System
  • Measurements of a Distributed File System
• September 29, 1998
  • Scale and Performance in a Distributed File System
  • An Experimental Time-Sharing System
• October 1, 1998
  • The Functional Structure of OS/360
• October 6, 1998
  • The Structure of the `THE' Multiprogramming System
  • The UNIX Time-Sharing System
• October 8, 1998
  • From RIG to Accent to Mach: the Evolution of a Network Operating System
  • Design and Implementation of the Sun Network File System
• October 13, 1998
  • The HP AutoRAID Hierarchical Storage System
• October 15, 1998
  • Serverless Network File Systems
  • Frangipani: A Scalable Distributed Network File System
• October 20, 1998
  • Implementation and Performance of Application-Controlled File Caching
  • Informed Prefetching and Caching
• October 22, 1998
  • A Trace-Driven Comparison of Algorithms for Parallel Prefetching and Caching
  • Automatic Compiler-Inserted I/O Prefetching and Out-of-Core Applications
• October 27, 1998
  • Reimplementing the Cedar File System Using Logging and Group Commit
  • One-Level Storage System
• October 29, 1998
  • Virtual Memory, Processes, and Sharing in Multics
  • Virtual Memory Management in the VAX/VMS Operating System
• November 3, 1998
  • Machine-Independent Virtual Memory Management for Paged Uniprocessor and Multiprocessor Architectures
  • The Performance of µ-Kernel Based Systems
• November 5, 1998
  • Plan 9 From Bell Labs
• November 10, 1998
  • RPC in the x-Kernel: Evaluating New Design Techniques
  • The Flux OSKit: A Substrate for Kernel and Language Research
• November 12, 1998
  • Application Performance and Flexibility on Exokernel Systems
  • Extensibility, Safety and Performance in the SPIN Operating System
  • Dealing With Disaster: Surviving Misbehaved Kernel Extensions
• November 17, 1998
  • The "Worm" Programs--Early Experience with a Distributed Computation
  • Implementing Remote Procedure Calls
• November 19, 1998
  • Experience with Grapevine: The Growth of a Distributed System
  • Agile Application-Aware Adaptation for Mobility
• November 24, 1998
  • Safe Kernel Extensions Without Run-Time Checking
  • Scheduler Activations: Effective Kernel Support for the User-Level Management of Parallelism
• December 1, 1998
  • Recovery Management in QuickSilver
  • Free Transactions with Rio Vista

Related Links

• Systems
  • Amoeba
  • Flux
  • HP AutoRAID
  • The IBM 7094 and CTSS
  • MULTICS
  • Plan 9
  • SPIN
  • Sprite
  • Tandem Computers (NonStop kernel)
  • VINO
  • xFS
  • x-kernel
• People
  • Thomas Anderson
  • Mary Baker
  • Brian Bershad
  • J. Bradley Chen
  • Fernando J. Corbató
  • Garth Gibson
  • Tom Kilburn
  • Hank Levy
  • Sape Mullender
  • John K. Ousterhout
  • David A. Patterson
  • R. Hugo Patterson
  • Larry Peterson
  • Rob Pike
  • Dennis Ritchie
  • Mendel Rosenblum
  • Jerome H. Saltzer
  • M. Satyanarayanan
  • Michael Stonebraker
  • Ken Thompson
  • Carl Waldspurger
  • William Weihl
  • John Wilkes