CMSC216 (Spring 2018) - Introduction to Computer Systems

Syllabus

The goal of the course is to convey the fundamental concepts that enable programs to execute on real hardware. Those concepts include how the operating system virtualizes the hardware to provide basic services and abstractions to enable a user program to effectively use the available hardware resources. The course also addresses how different programming constructs and idioms work.

The basic abstraction of a program running as one or more threads of control in a single flat address space (a Unix process) is the key to the course. Emphasizing that abstraction as the underlying model for understanding how a program works, from both the user program and hardware perspective (with the OS in between), run as a theme through all topics in the course. Examples include C pointers (to data and functions), function calls and runtime stack management, dynamic memory management in the heap, and the fork/exec system calls.

Prerequisite → C- or better in CMSC132 and MATH 141
Corequisite → CMSC 250 (or equivalent)
Credits → 4

• Unix Memory Model
• Moving from Java to C
• Pointers and dynamic data structures in C
• I/O, standard libraries
• Testing
• Assembly Language
• Process control
• Systems programming
• Program measurement and optimization
• Multithreaded programming with pthreads
• Libraries and linking
• Dynamic memory management

Additional information for students in the honor's (cmsc216H) section can be found at Honors.

Once we have graded any class material (e.g., exams, projects, etc.) we will post an announcement and a deadline by which you must submit any regrade request (if necessary). It is your responsibility to submit regrade requests by the specified deadline; no regrade requests will be processed afterwards.

• Deadlines - All projects are due at 8 pm on the specified day in the project description. You have until 8 pm of the next day to submit your project with a 12% penalty. Notice that after the late period, you will not receive any points for your project, even though you still need to satisfy the good faith attempt (see information below). For example, if a project is due on Wednesday at 8 pm, you have until Thursday at 8 pm to submit a late project with a 12% penalty. Any submission after Thursday 8 pm will receive 0 pts.
• Submit Server - You need to use the submit server for project submissions. We will not accept projects submitted otherwise (e.g., e-mail, etc.). Notice that we use the submit server results to compute a significant portion of your project's grade. You need to make sure that your project works in the submit server, otherwise you will not get any credit.
• Which Project Gets Graded - Your grade for an project will be based on the submission with the highest score after the late penalty (if any) has been applied.
• Good Faith Attempt - You must satisfy a minimum set of requirements for each project (Good Faith Attempt) otherwise you will not pass the course (automatic grade of F). Each project defines its own good faith attempt criteria and a deadline to provide an implementation that satisfies it. If you start a project on time, and look for assistance (if required) you should have no problems satisfying the Good Faith Attempt. The Good Faith Attempt guarantees you have the skills necessary for upper-level courses. Notice that you will not receive extra points for completing the good faith attempt. The grade you obtain for a project will be based on your ontime/late submission.
• Closed Projects - All programming assignments in this course are to be written individually (unless explicitly indicated otherwise). Cooperation between students is a violation of the Code of Academic Integrity.

• Do not post your assignments' implementation online (e.g., GitHub, PasteBin) where they can be seen by others. Making your code accessible to others can lead to academic integrity violations.
• Posting of your projects in a private repository where only selected people (e.g., potential employers) can see them is OK. Just make sure is not a public site.
• Even if the course is over, do not make your code publicly available to others.
• We constantly monitor online sources.

In-lecture graded exercises (sometimes without advance notice) are an integral part of the work of the course.

Office hours get extremely busy the day before a project deadline. Therefore do not wait to start your projects. Regarding office hours and the TA Room:

• Once you have been helped by a TA please leave the TA room. We have a large number of students in all of our classes and the TA room is really crowded.
• If there is a line of students waiting, a TA should spent at most 5 minutes with a student. Please remind TAs about this rule.

You need to keep backups of your projects as you develop them. No extensions will be granted because you accidentally erased your project. Feel free to use the submit server as a backup tool by submitting often. You can also use tools like git, etc. Do not post code in any online system that is accessible to others (e.g., GitHub).

We will be using (Piazza) for class communication. You will not be able to register to Piazza yourself. Your instructor will register you using the e-mail you have in the school system.

See the section titled "Attendance, Absences, or Missed Assignments" available at Course Related Policies.

See the section titled "Accessibility" available at Course Related Policies.

Note that academic dishonesty includes not only cheating, fabrication, and plagiarism, but also includes helping other students commit acts of academic dishonesty by allowing them to obtain copies of your work. In short, all submitted work must be your own. Cases of academic dishonesty will be pursued to the fullest extent possible as stipulated by the Office of Student Conduct.

It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.shc.umd.edu.

The CS Department takes academic integrity seriously. Information on how the CS Department views and handle academic integrity matters can be found at Academic Integrity.

The following are examples of academic integrity violations:

• Hardcoding of results in a project assignment. Hardcoding refers to attempting to make a program appear as if it works correctly (e.g., printing expected results for a test).
• Using any code available on the internet/web or any other source. For example, using code from Sourceforge.
• Hiring any online service to complete an assignment for you.
• Sharing your code or your student tests with any student.
• Using online forums (other than Piazza) in order to ask for help regarding our assignments.

Additional information can be found in the sections titled "Academic Integrity" and "Code of Student Conduct" available at Course Related Policies.

• Please bring your laptop to your discussion (lab) session and to lecture. If you don't have a laptop, we will pair you up with a classmate.
• As you work on a project submit your project often even if you have not finished. We monitor submit server submissions and can provide assistance based on submit server results.
• At the end of the semester visit (www.courseevalum.umd.edu) to complete your course evaluations.
• If you are experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the academic demands of this course, you may contact the Learning Assistance Service located at 2202 Shoemaker Building.
• UMD Course related policies can be found at http://www.ugst.umd.edu/courserelatedpolicies.html

All course materials are copyright UMCP, Department of Computer Science © 2018. All rights reserved. Students are permitted to use course materials for their own personal use only. Course materials may not be distributed publicly or provided to others (excepting other students in the course), in any way or format.

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