CS6410 (formerly CS614) Advanced Systems

Course URL: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Courses/CS6410/2008FA/

Class Meetings: Attendance is required.

10:10 - 11:25 Tuesday and Thursday Upson 111.

No class will be held on Sept 30 (Tuesday) and October 9 (Thursday) in observation of the Jewish High Holidays. Make-up classes will be scheduled.

Instructor:

Professor Fred B. Schneider (255-9221) 4115C Upson Hall

Office hours: Available Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Feel free to drop by without an appointment. If I am otherwise engaged, we can at least agree on a time to meet.

email: fbs@cs.cornell.edu.

Other Staff:

Kevin Walsh (kwalsh@cs.cornell.edu) 5138 Upson Hall

Prerequisites. The course is open to any graduate student who has mastered the material in CS3410 (CS314) or CS3420 (ECE 3140), and also CS4410 (CS414). Undergraduates must receive permission of the instructor to enroll---attend the first class and meet with the instructor immediately afterwards.

Course Overview. This is a graduate-level reading course that covers classic and recent papers in operating systems and distributed systems. Students will:

learn about systems abstractions, principles, and artifacts that have had lasting value,
understand attributes of systems research that is likely to have impact,
become comfortable navigating the literature in this field,
gain experience in thinking critically and analytically about systems research, and
acquire the background needed to work on research problems currently under study at Cornell and elsewhere.

Consult the detailed list for a list of topics and URL's for the reading you are expected to do prior to each class meeting. This page will be updated with specifics, as the semester progresses.

Expectations of Participants.

Each class meeting will be organized around a topic and some technical papers. For most meetings, some student will prepare a presentation and lead a discussion (see below); all other students are expected to have carefully read the assigned set of papers.
Each student will write a "term paper" that is a tutorial about one of the topics that student has presented in class. The paper should explain the key ideas and how they are related at a level suitable for publication as a chapter for a CS6410 textbook. Due December 4.
Each student will be expected to write an informal specification for functionality in some system, component, or protocol that is discussed in a technical paper we cover in class. The format for these specification will be discussed in class. Detailed instruction can be found here . Due November 6.

Note: Auditors in CS6410 are not expected to submit the tutorial and writing the informal specification. But auditors are expected to lead one or more class sessions, just like the students who are enrolled in the course for credit.

Grading. Final course grades will be computed as follows:

30% Class Presentations. This grade will be based on both the number and quality of presentations you give. Quantity is not a substitute for quality, but failing to do your fair-share of the presentations will impact your grade.
15% Participation in class discussion.
30% Tutorial Paper.
15% Informal specification exercise.
10% Subjective factors, including regular in-class quizes based on required readings.

How to Prepare and Lead a Presentation.

[Sept 2] Class participants should be prepared to select the first round of topics they will lead.
[At least 5 class meetings (=2 weeks + 1 meeting) before the scheduled date for your presentation] Meet with the instructor to agree on what ideas to focus on and what papers to cover.
[At least 3 class meetings (=1 week + 1 meeting) before the scheduled date for your presentation] Meet with the instructor to go over a draft of your presentation. Prior to that meeting, submit either a set of written (typeset) lecture notes if you are giving a "chalk talk" or a printed copy of slides if you are giving a powerpoint presentation.
[At least 2 class meetings before the scheduled date for your presentation] Meet with the instructor
- for a final review / dry-run of your presentation, and
- to decide the set of papers that constitute the assigned reading
Don't expect you'll be able to schedule the above meetings at the last minute. Schedules fill up, and the instructor is not infrequently away from Ithaca. Email the instructor a week or so in advance of when you'll want to have the above meetings.