Computer Science 432 Operating Systems Williams College Fall 2006

As you know, this course requires you to complete a final project that will determine 25% of your grade. You may choose your own topic related to operating systems to study in more detail than we have as a class. Your project should include programming, but the amount may vary from topic to topic. A formal research paper and brief (approximately 20 minute) presentation at a minisymposium to be held during reading period are required.

You may work individually or in groups of two or three. Groups must be formed by Friday, November 3, 2006.

Please start thinking about a topic right away and come to me with your ideas. By 11:59 PM, Tuesday, November 7, 2006, submit a proposal, at most one page in length, that describes your topic, what specifically you plan to investigate about your topic, and how you plan to go about it. Describe the major milestones for your project, a rough schedule for achieving these milestones, and which milestones you believe are most important for your project to be considered a success. If you will need access to any special hardware or software, include that in your proposal. Your proposal should convince me that you have an interesting and worthwhile topic and that it is feasible in the time available. Submit as a PDF file proposal.pdf.

By 3:50 PM, Tuesday, November 21, 2006, submit a progress report. This should consist of a detailed outline (or better yet, an early draft) of your paper including sources, and a description of the design and current implementation status of your software, as well as a timetable for completion of the project. Submit a PDF file progress.pdf.

This is to be a formal research paper, and should be organized as such. You should begin with a title, author list, and abstract. The main body of the paper should be organized into sections including (i) an introduction in which you describe the general topic and the particular aspects you will be examining, (ii) one or more sections comprising your main text, where you describe what you have done, how you have done it, and what you have learned, (iii) a conclusion, which should include ideas for future investigation into your topic which were beyond the scope of your project and the paper, and (iv) a complete list of citations. Citations of web pages are acceptable in some circumstances, but books, articles in conference proceedings or journals, or technical reports are preferred.

Proper English and a good technical writing style are important. Writing well is very difficult - it is an iterative process and cannot be done all at once. Be precise and be concise. Group members should proofread and make suggestions about each other's writing. Check your spelling and grammar carefully. I expect most papers will be around 15 single-sided pages, using 1.5 spacing, one inch margins, and a 12-point Times Roman font (or as close as you can come). Please do not adjust margins and font sizes to force a certain length. You are encouraged but not required to use LaTeX to typeset your paper. The LaTeX example in my shared area is already set up with an appropriate format. Length is not important - content and quality are. Papers shorter than 10 pages or longer than 20 pages are acceptable, if the length is appropriate for the content.

Submit a complete draft as a PDF file draft.pdf by 3:50 PM, Friday, December 8, 2006. The more complete this draft, the better feedback I can give you to improve it and the more you can focus on programming at the end. You may also submit additional drafts for feedback, but keep in mind that it may take me a day or two to get to them. Submit your final version as a PDF file paper.pdf by 4:00 PM, Friday, December 15, 2006.

You should submit your source code and instructions on how to build and run it. The software should be described in the paper. Please make arrangements to demonstrate the program. Source code should be submitted and demonstrations completed by 4:00 PM, Friday, December 15, 2006.

Each group will present a summary of their work to the class. Include background information on your topic, the motivation for your project, a description of what you did, and a summary of what you learned. Software demonstrations may also be appropriate. Prepare slides or web pages. Rehearse your presentation, paying special attention to timing. Given how busy everyone will be at the end of the semester, our schedule will be tight, so groups will not be allowed to run over the allotted time. Presentations will take place during a class minisymposium on Monday, December 11, 2006  at a time and place to be determined. All group members must participate in the presentation. Attendance is required at the entire presentation session, not just when your group is speaking.

This final project accounts for 25% of the course grade. The grade will be based on all aspects of the project, including the proposal (5%), the progress report (5%), the design, documentation, style, and correctness of the software developed (0-30%), the content and writing style of the complete draft (15%) and final version (30-60%) of the paper, and quality of the presentation (15%). The breakdown between software development and the final paper will depend on the amount of programming required for each project. No credit is given for attendance at the minisymposium, but penalties will be applied for missing all or part of it.

Here are some ideas to consider when choosing your topic:

• Experimental modifications to FreeBSD or Linux kernel (such as custom schedulers, memory management, file systems, device drivers).
• A more detailed simulation (along the lines of the CPU scheduling simulator) of some aspect or aspects of operating systems.
• OS issues arising in high-end web servers or server farms (think Google, very popular news/sports/weather sites).
• Implementations of and applications of semaphores or other synchronization techniques.
• Experiments with how (insert OS here) handles (insert important OS issues here), possibly trying other possibilities.
• Mass storage systems, high performance file systems, file system safety and repair.
• OS issues in autonomous systems, embedded systems, or real time systems.
• Emulators or virtual machines - build your own or enhance an existing one. This could include things like the Java virtual machine, emulators for older hardware, or operating system virtualization with tools such as Xen or VMWare.
• Operating system issues on the WC34000.
• Operating system issues arising in next-generation hardware (e.g., chips with many CPU cores).
• Protection and security issues, encryption.
• Distributed operating systems.
• File sharing over wide-area networks.
• OS issues in Grid computing, internet computing.
• Theoretical issues in OS, such as queueing theory.

You may wish to look at the titles and abstracts of past projects linked from the class web page.

These are just ideas, and you should not restrict yourself to this list. I hope everyone can find an appropriate topic that they find interesting. You might also find it useful to browse recent journals and conferences proceedings to get a feel for some current research projects in operating systems.

We may be able to provide a dedicated lab computer to each of a few groups who wish to pursue a project that requires administrative access. If you think you may be interested in this, be sure to stake your claim right away.

Collaboration within a group is unrestricted. Since each group is working on a different project, you are free to discuss your projects with each other. If you wish to use or refer to any software libraries or outside source code beyond the standard language (C, C++, Java) libraries, check with me first. All sources must be cited properly. If in doubt about anything related to Honor Code, ask now and avoid problems later!

You have six weeks, so the expectation is for six weeks of work. You will not be able to do a good job if you put it off. I don't expect a Ph.D. thesis, but I do expect much more than your average lab assignment.