CS 4410 / CS4411
Operating Systems
Prof. Sirer & Prof. George
Fall 2014
Cornell University
Whats This Course About?
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Ostensibly, its about operating systems
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architecting complex software
identifying needs and priorities
separating concerns
implementing artifacts with desired properties
Its really about software design principles
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It just so happens that OSes illustrate
organizational principles and design patterns
What Kind of a Course Is This?
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Constructive, top-down
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We start from first principles and re-derive the
design of every component of a complex system
Deconstructive, bottom-up
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We dissect existing systems, learn what tradeoffs
they make, what patterns they use
Course Objective
Establish a foundation for building complex
programs
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Architect systems
Identify desirable properties
Build large systems
Debug complex systems
Understand all layers of the software stack
between hardware and applications
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What is an Operating System?
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An operating system (OS) provides a virtual
execution environment on top of hardware
that is more convenient than the raw hardware
interface
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All of the code you did not write
Simpler
More reliable
More secure
More portable
More efficient
Applications
Operating
System
Hardware
What do OSes do?
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Manage physical resources
Provide virtual resources
Implement mechanisms and enforce policies to
arbitrate access to resources
Mediate the interaction of mutually distrusting
applications
Provide an extensible, general-purpose
platform for a variety of applications
What Resources Do OSes
Control?
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Physical Resources
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CPU, memory, disks, networks, I/O devices,
Virtual Resources
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Files, directories, sockets, names,
Issues in OS Design
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Structure: how is an OS organized?
Concurrency: how are parallel activities
created and controlled?
Sharing: how are resources shared?
Naming: how are resources named by users?
Protection: how are distrusting parties
protected from each other?
Security: how to authenticate, authorize and
ensure privacy?
Performance: why is it so slow?
More Issues
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Reliability: how do we deal with failures?
Extensibility: how do we add new features?
Communication: how do we exchange
information?
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Scale: what happens as demands increase?
Persistence: how do we make information
outlast the processes that created it?
Accounting: who pays the bills and how do we
control resource usage?
Why Learn Operating Systems?
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At most 1% of software developers will work on OS
code
The material taught in this course is critical not just for
building Oses, but for building correct, highperformance applications (clients of Oses), as well as
building reusable platforms for others
This course will go far beyond OS design to cover all
aspects of computer organization, including
concurrency, synchronization, input/output,
filesystems, networking, routing, distributed systems
and so forth
Engineering pride alone requires full understanding
Fact
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There has never been as exciting a time to work
on systems hardware and software as now!!!
The world is increasingly dependent on computer
systems
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Connected, networked, interlinked
People just do not know how to build robust
systems
BSOD
BSOD
BSOD
Therac-25
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A safety-critical
system with
software
interlocks
Beam controlled
entirely through a
custom OS
Therac-25
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Old system used a hardware interlock
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A lever that could either be in the zap or x-ray position
New system was computer controlled
A synchronization failure was triggered when competent
nurses used the back arrow to change the data on the
screen too quickly
Therac-25 Outcome
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Beam killed one person directly, burned others, and
may have given inadequate treatment to cancer
patients
Problem was very difficult to diagnose; initial fix
involved removal of the back arrow key from the
keyboard
People died because a programmer could not write
correct code for a concurrent system
Denver airport
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The most modern, most expensive airport in recent
history
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Cost overrun in excess of $2B
Highly automated luggage handling system was
supposed to deliver your luggage to you at arrival
Lack of persistence caused luggage carts to forget
their contents, sprinkling the luggage on the runway
USS Yorktown
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Modern guided missile cruiser off of Norfolk, VA in
1998
Crew member entered 0 for a data value
Cascade of failures led to a failure of the propulsion
system
Yorktown was dead in the water for a couple of hours
Bitcoin Banks
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There is a new crop of systems for holding data known
as NoSQL databases
We cautioned about the errors people were
committing with NoSQL systems
The simplest attack against banks, of simultaneous
withdrawals, actually works! Attackers stole millions of
dollars from Bitcoin banks
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One bank lost a million and folded
Another lost $500K, took losses
Other Systems
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FAA air traffic control system
IRS data management system
IBM Microkernel
Pentagon data security
Many others, too numerous to list
Summary
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We do not have the necessary technologies
and know-how to build robust computer
systems
There is huge demand for people who deeply
understand and can build robust systems
Philosophy
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Not your grandfathes OS course
We believe that the following topics are critical
for every software engineer
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Building concurrent systems
Architecting networked components
Building transactional systems
Not widely shared, the course is unique
Logistics
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Lectures
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Tuesday, Thursday 2:55-4:10pm, Ives 305
Instructor
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Prof. Sirer, egs at systems.cs.cornell.edu
Prof. George, mdgeorge at cs.cornell.edu
Office Hours
w Prof. Sirer: Tuesday 4:10-5:10pm
w Prof. George: Thursday 4:10-5:10pm
TAs
Communication
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Course Web Page
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Office hours, assignments, lectures, and other
supplemental materials will be on the web site
Email
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cs4410staff at systems.cs.cornell.edu
The email alias goes to us and the TAs, not to the
whole class
Administrative
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Course has three components
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Lectures and Readings
Exams
Projects and MiniProjects
Textbook
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Anderson and Dahlin
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You are expected to keep up with all three
Grading
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CS4410 Breakdown
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MiniProjects
Prelim 1
Prelim 2
Final
Flexgrade (participation, attitude, effort)
CS4411 Breakdown
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~40%
~12%
~18%
~25%
~5%
~90% Projects
~10% Flexgrade
Grading will not be done on a curve
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It is our goal to be able to give everyone an A+
Help us achieve this
Projects in CS4411
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Projects will be done in two-person teams
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You may indicate a desired partner
If they also indicate you, we will pair you up
If you dont have a preferred partner, well pair you
up with someone suitable
Working in groups
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Start early, time management is key
Manage the team effort
Part of what you are supposed to learn is how to
manage to get work done in a small team
MiniProjects in 4410
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There will be approximately 4-6 miniprojects
MiniProjects will be done individually
Working individually
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Start early, time management is key
Academic Integrity and Honor Code
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All submitted work must be your own
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All homeworks must be your own independent work
OK to study together
Cannot share solutions, ever
Project groups submit joint work
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All group assignments must represent solely the work of the
two people in that group
Cannot be in possession of someone elses solution
Violations will be prosecuted to the fullest extent
Closed-book exams, no calculators
Our Expectations
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Code of Silence
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Absolute quiet during lectures
If you have a question, please speak up
w Chances are 100% that someone else has the same question
No electronics, Luddite zone
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Scientific studies show that such classrooms are far
more effective
Enrollment SNAFU
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There is great demand for CS courses in general, this
course in particular
The department has decided that the only way to
manage the demand is to award the limited slots
according to need
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I was not consulted during the capping process
I did not implement the caps
Having said that, I dont know of any other way to manage
the demand
There was an error where the caps were set wrong, as
result, some people who enrolled in April had to be
unenrolled
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The instructors had nothing to do with this!
Enrollments
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If you are enrolled now, congrats!
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If you decide to drop the course, please do so
promptly so others can step in!
If youre not yet enrolled yet, you need to
place your name on a department-managed
waitlist
The department, not the instructors, will triage
the waitlist and send enrollment PINs
Prerequisite
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CS3410 or equivalent required. Or permission
of instructor.
Required means required.
If you did not take CS3410 or equivalent, you
must contact course staff, explain your
situation and request permission.
Draft Syllabus
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Introduction
Architectural Support for Operating Systems
Processes and Threads
Scheduling
Synchronization, Mutual Exclusion, Spin Locks, Semaphores,
Condition Variables
Deadlocks, Detection and Avoidance
Memory Management
Networking, LANs, WANs, Ethernet, ARP, IP, UDP, TCP
Disks and RAID
Filesystems, UFS, LFS
Security
Draft Project Plan for CS4411
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Threads and Concurrency
Scheduling
Basic Datagram Networking
Reliable Streaming Protocols
Routing
Filesystems
About Prof. Sirer
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Interests: OSes,
distributed systems,
self-organizing and
peer-to-peer systems
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Bitcoin, flaws within, fixes to
Sailing, wind, sea, woodworking (aka body
modification)
About Prof. George
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Cornell grad student through
2013, lecturer since 2013
Took 4410 a decade ago!
Interested in designing and
building systems and reasoning
about code.
Just taught 4410 over the summer
Questions?
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And demographics
