CS 351: Systems Programming

Calendar

Please note that readings for a given lecture should ideally be reviewed before coming to class, and will likely need to be revisited afterwards. Most readings are from "Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective, 3rd Edition" (CS:APP3e). Lecture slides/notes will be updated after class, when available.

The lecture calendar is tentative and may be updated.

Machine Problems

Note that invitation links are inactive until assignments are released.

Resources

Administrivia

• Syllabus
• Class discussion (Discord)
• Instructor: Michael Lee <lee@iit.edu>
  • Hours: Make an appointment
• TAs:
  • Section 01: Adrian Kirchner <akirchner@hawk.iit.edu>
    • Hours: Tue 2-3:30PM, Wed 2-3PM, Thu 2-3:30PM
  • Section 02/03: Andrew Neth <aneth@hawk.iit.edu>
    • Hours: Fri 11:30AM-3:30PM
  • Section 04: Aman Luqman <aluqman@hawk.iit.edu>
    • Hours: Tue 5-6PM, Thu 5-6PM
  • Section 05: Felix Campbell <fcampbell@hawk.iit.edu>
    • Hours: Mon 2-3PM, Fri 12-1PM

Primary references

• Course textbook: Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective
• Lab demo screencasts at the Vimeo channel
• Archived YouTube playlist of old lectures

C references

• The C Programming Language / "K&R"
• The C Standard Library
• The comp.lang.c FAQ
• "The C Book"
• Some handy educational materials having to do with C, pointers, and data structures @ the Stanford CS Education Library
• C->assembly explorer: Compiler Explorer

Library / Syscall references

• Two deep-dive texts into Unix/Linux systems programming:
  • The Linux Programming Interface
  • Advanced Unix Programming (AUP)
• Linux man pages on the WWW
• Beej's Guide to UNIX IPC
• GNU C Library (glibc) documentation; of particular interest:
  • Signal handling
  • Low-level Input/Output

Misc. development tool references

• The Bash manual
• Learn one of these editors:
  • The GNU Emacs manual
  • The Vim manual
• The git version control tool:
  • Pro Git
  • Git Magic.
• GDB, the GNU debugger:
  • The GDB manual
  • A handy reference card
  • A guide to using gdb to debug child processes

Other references

• x86-64 assembly programming reference
• A Tiny Guide to Programming in 32-bit x86 Assembly Language
• An survey of dynamic storage allocation techniques: Paul Wilson et. al., Dynamic Storage Allocation: A Survey and Critical Review, 1995.
• Doug Lea's malloc
• An interactive VM simulator and overview

Exams and practice problems

• Exam catalog:

  • Midterm Fall 2019, Written solutions
  • Midterm Fall 2017
  • Midterm Spring 2015
  • Midterm Spring 2012
  • Sample final, Spring 2015, Solutions
  • Final, Fall 2012

• Practice problems:

  • Cache lookup
  • Array/Cache mapping
  • Array/Cache mapping
  • VM translation; solutions:
    • #1: (a) 0xE7 (b) 0xCA
    • #2: (a) 0xCB (b) 0x92
    • #3: (a) 0xA0 (b) 0x00
  • Implicit list DMA
  • Garbage collection