News

• 2005-02-04: The final exams can be inspected in RZ H 18 until the end of February (weekdays, 9-12 a.m.)
• 2005-02-03: The scores of the SP and CA finals have been copied to the AFS submission directories. You can find them in file /afs/ethz.ch/users/y/ysu/sysprog-04/exercise/<group>/exam/<login>/grade.final
• 2005-01-26: Shell lab: the reference shell implementation 'tshref' in shlab-handout has been updated. Now you can do the lab in computer rooms in HG, IFW and HRS.
• 2005-01-24: Foils for assignment 3, assignment 4 and assignment 5 are online.
• 2005-01-19: A few comments on the exam and grading.
• 2005-01-19: The deadline for the shell lab was extended to Feb 1, 2005.
• 2005-01-03: The scores of the Buffer Lab have been copied to the AFS submission directories. Check the files in /afs/ethz.ch/users/y/ysu/sysprog-04/exercise/<group>/u3/<login>/ to find out about your performance.
• 2005-01-03: If you want to have a look at your midterm exam you can come to office RZ H 18 and ask Ms. Hidalgo or Ms. Sommer. This is possible until January 21, 2005.
• 2004-12-20:Bug in BUFBOMB, NITRO Level 4: When run in nitro mode, bufbom will execute getbufn 5 times, each with a different stack offset. From program start to program start, the stack offsets should always the same as the random number generator produces always the same sequence.
  Due to a bug in a source code, the stack offsets vary from program start to program start... What happens: (1) On your machine, one program run is fine, the next one is not. (2) When the solution works and is sent to the server, then the server might accept your solution but it also might discard it.
  If your solution has been submitted to the server and has not accepted: DON'T WORRY and don't spend any time on trying to fix it. Please send your exploit string in HEX form and your AFS ID to scech/at/inf/ethz/ch and we will validate it manually.
• 2004-12-16: The scores of the SP midterm have been copied to the AFS submission directories. Check the file /afs/ethz.ch/users/y/ysu/sysprog-04/exercise/<group>/exam/<login>/grade.midterm to find out about your performance.
• 2004-12-03: A student asked if "Optimization I" (part of which was covered on 11/29) is part of the System Programming midterm. The answer is no -- pipelining will be tested (but as a Computer Architecture topic), the rest of the material of 11/29 is left for the final.
• 2004-12-01: Foils for the first three assignments are now online.
• 2004-11-28: The midterm exam on Dec 6 is closed book and closed notes. The split between Computer Architecture and System Programming is according to the schedule below. However, those parts of Computer Architecture that are needed to understand System Programming (and vice versa) can also appear on the System Programming exam. (For example, addressing modes could appear in both exams.) Material covered by Nov 29 will be tested.
• 2004-11-28: Those who ordered the book can pick up their copy after class on Thursday (Dec 2nd)
• 2004-11-24: Master solution for Assignment 1 is now online.
• 2004-11-17: The grading was explained to all students in a message. If you lost it, or you enrolled late, here is a copy . Both exams count 25%.
• 2004-10-21: Please register for a recitation group at http://www.prs.ethz.ch.
• 2004-10-21: Welcome! We will discuss the organization and structure of the class.

Course overview

This course provides a programmer's view of how computer systems execute programs, store information, and communicate. The course attempts to expose students to the practical issues that affect performance, portability, robustness, and extensibility. This course provides a foundation for subsequent courses on operating systems, networks, compilers and many other courses that require an understanding of the system-level issues.

Topics include

• Machine-level code and its generation by optimizing compilers,
• Input and output,
• Trap/event handlers,
• Performance evaluation and optimization,
• Program's view of networks and protocols,
• Techniques to control concurrent (multi-threaded) execution.

Course schedule

• This course is co-taught with the course on Computer Architecture. We will swap lectures as appropriate.
• This course meets in HG F1 every Monday 10:15-11:55 and in HG E7 every Thursday 9:15-10:00.

Assistants

All groups meet on Tuesday.

Assignment schedule