Course-Info

Course Info

• See sidebar (on right) for many details.
• Course outline

Getting Extra Help

Some great ways to get extra help are:

• Workshop
  The optional weekly workshop is a chance to see a live demo of some of the skills required by the course and ask questions.

• Piazza discussion forum
  Check out classmate questions and answers. Answer someone else's question, or ask your own (anonymously if you like). Post a private question if you are posting some assignment code. Link in sidebar (right). Note: Piazza is hosted outside of Canada; you are expected to check this form before submitting assignments.

• Office Hours
  Instructors and TAs have office hours. Great for getting in person help or personal concerns. Leading up to each assignment being due, there will be two TAs who are responding to Piazza and email questions, who will then mark that assignment. See Piazza for up-to-date office hours schedule.

  • Assignment 1
    Deeksha Kamath [dkamath@sfu.ca]
    Suraj Swaroop [sswaroop@sfu.ca]
  • Assignment 2
    Lelei Zhang [leleiz@sfu.ca]
    Pourya Vaziri [pvaziri@sfu.ca]
  • Assignment 3
    Shangzhen Tan [sta121@sfu.ca]
    Evgenii Pravda [epravda@sfu.ca]
  • Assignment 4
    Mrinal Gosain [mgosain@sfu.ca]
    Abhishek (Abhi) Babu [apv@sfu.ca]

• Assignment Marking Questions
  Email questions about assignment marking to the TA who marked your submission; see sidebar for addresses. Include course number in email's subject line.

• Email Less efficient than Piazza, but private. Good for private questions about extension requests or other issues. Please include course number email's subject line. Email addresses in sidebar (right). If asking about an extension or extenuating circumstances, please email the instructor of the section you are registered in (D100 = Harinder, D200 = Brian)

Marking Scheme

• Assignments (45%) - ~4 assignments; due about every 3 weeks. Assignment weight in CourSys are approximate. Assignments will be posted on website; ask questions on Piazza.
• Quizzes (25%) - ~5 quizzes worth ~5% each, quizzes occur roughly every two weeks during lecture time.
• Midterm (15%) - during lecture time, tentatively scheduled for week 8 of the term; see sidebar for date.
• Final Exam (15%) - Not-cumulative for course; date in sidebar.

All tests will be conducted online at fixed times. Tests will be open book and open internet, however all work submitted must be your own and all students must work on their own. More details on the format and allowances will be given as the semester progresses. Photograph/video may be used for proctoring and/or verifying student identity during tests.

Submitted student code for assignments may be anonymously used for in-class code reviews, after all identifying information has been removed.

Students may be expected to attend follow-up meetings with an instructor for verification of the work submitted for assignments and/or tests.

Grading Details

• Students must attain an overall passing grade on the weighted average of the exams in the course to obtain a clear pass (C- or better).

Late Policy

• Assignment Late Policy
  5% penalty per calendar day; usually max 7 days late. Contact your instructor before the deadline if there are extenuating circumstances. Some assignments may not allow late submissions, such as just before the midterm.
• Extensions and Deferrals
  If you are unable to complete an assignment or you will miss an exam due to medical reasons, only the University's Certificate of Illness form will be accepted as proof. Please contact your instructor before the assignment is due or before missing an exam to discuss alternative arrangements.

Good Textbooks

• Highly Recommended Book ("Required"; source of readings listed on notes page):
  • Operating System Concepts, 10th Edition (Ebook available), Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, Greg Gagne, J. Wiley & Sons, 2018 (Any other intro O.S. book would probably suffice as well, including previous editions of this book)
• Recommended Book
  • Unix System Programming: a programmers guide to software development, 2nd edition, Keith Haviland, Dina Gray and Ben Salama, Addison-Wesley, 1999 (For those who have never touched a Unix system)
• Reference Books
  • Modern Operating Systems, 4th edition, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 2014
  • Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles, 9th Edition, William Stallings, Prentice Hall, 2018 (also available as an eBook)

Academic Conduct

As a member of the SFU community, you are expected to abide by the rules of academic honesty and student conduct as detailed in the calendar. Ignorance of these policies is no excuse if you run afoul of them! Submitting the work of another person as your own (i.e. plagiarism) constitutes academic misconduct, as does communication with others (either as a donor or recipient) in ways other than those permitted for assignments and tests. Specifically, for this course, the rules are as follows:

• Assignments are to be done alone (or with your group members if group work is allowed). You may not, under any circumstances, submit any work not written by you or look at another student/group’s work. You may not share your work with others.
• You are, however, encouraged to discuss the approach you used to solve a problem with your fellow students. This discussion must not involve any specific details, only the approach used. You are not permitted to take any written/recorded notes away from your discussion.
• You are permitted to get help on implementation issues (e.g. debugging code) from other students, but all work you submit must be your own.
• All work submitted for the online quizzes and exams must be your own. You are permitted to use your notes and resources found online, but all students are expected to work on their own.
• The MOSS tool will be used to check the originality of all electronic submissions (within this class, and against previous offerings as needed).

Violations of these rules constitute serious academic misconduct, and they are subject to penalties ranging from a grade of zero on a particular assignment to indefinite suspension from the University. If you are in any doubt about the interpretation of these rules, consult the instructor or a TA!

Privacy

Lectures and workshops will be recorded and made available via the course website. As a result, Simon Fraser University may collect your image, voice, name, personal views and opinions, and course work under the legal authority of the University Act and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy. This information is related directly to and needed by the University to support student learning only (i.e., posting in the Learning Management System for students to review). If you have any questions about the collection and use of this information please contact your instructor.