UCLA's lower-division CS111 Introduction to Operating Systems is the prerequisite course. A review presentation is available which covers important topics with which you are assumed to be familiar. Look it over. If there's some unfamiliar material here, you probably need to brush up on it. If there's a lot, you should probably consider taking CS111 first.
This course is primarily lecture-oriented, with 19 lectures and one mid-term exam scheduled. Two guest lectures are scheduled to be given by currently active operating systems research professors.
The course meets Monday and Wednesday, from 2-4 p.m., in 5203 Math Sciences, for ten consecutive weeks beginning September 29, 1997, and ending December 3, 1997. The final exam is scheduled for Friday, December 12, from 3-6 p.m., in 5203 Math Sciences. (see this summary of important dates)
Class material comes from several main sources: textbooks, journals, and conferences.
The formal textbook for the class is "Advanced Concepts in Operating Systems: Distributed, Database, and Multiprocessor Operating Systems" by Singhal and Shivaratri, 1994. Its in the ASUCLA bookstore.
You are responsible for attending every lecture, studying assigned material prior to each lecture (as per this schedule and any other assignments given orally in the lectures), preparing and submitting a term paper, and taking both the midterm and final exams. Exams are in-class, "open book," timed, essay-oriented, and cover assigned material and oral lecture content.
The term paper and midterm exam each represent 25% of the course grade; the final exam is 50%.
All work done on term papers and exams is to be the result of individual student effort. Please read and reflect on this statement on academic integrity, and then print and submit a signed copy to the instructor on the second day of class (October 1, 1997).
A "6-up format" PostScript version of the PowerPoint slides used in each lecture is normally available and listed here by noon the day of the lecture, but occasionally might not be ready until just before class.
The formal office hours are 4-5 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday in my office (3564B Boelter), following the lectures. Feel free to drop in unannounced, though the likelihood of my being in the office increases dramatically with an advance phone call (310/206-8696) or e-mail. I usually see e-mail within an hour or so of its transmission, and it is my practice to respond immediately to student e-mail.