CS110: Principles of Computer Systems

Announcements

• Tuesday, January 10, 2012
  Discussion section signup is now available via CourseWork. A direct link to the signup page is here.
• Thursday, January 5, 2012
  Welcome to CS110! Some logistics for the course:

  Prerequisites

  CS110 formally requires CS107 and either CS103 or CS103B. Practically, the course assumes you have exposure to basic computer architecture material at the level it is presented in CS107. The course involves some systems programming so experience in C with low-level programming (especially pointers and strings) will be helpful.

  Exams

  There will be an in-class midterm exam on Feburary 17th and a final in the normal final exam slot, Thursday, March 22nd at 8:30-11:30 a.m. The final exam will emphasize material not tested on the midterm, although it is technically cumulative and everything is fair game.

  Grading

  The course grading is divided between homework (programming and discussion assignments), one midterm, and a final exam. The approximate grade breakdown is:

  Homework 50%

  Midterm Exam 15%

  Final Exam 35%

  Late Policy

  The class material builds on itself and getting behind is taboo, since it tends to impede progress on the following assignments. Late submissions will be assessed a penalty of 10% per day (24-hour period). Assignments will not be accepted more than five days after the original assignment due date. You get three free "late days" (24-hour periods) that you may use to extend the due dates of any assignment without penalty. Once all your free late days are gone, you can still hand work in late, but with the 10% penalty.

  Honor Code

  Students are expected to follow the letter and spirit of Stanford's Honor Code.

Syllabus

Introduction to Computer Systems

Complexity, abstractions

Modularization, Naming and Layering

Memory, interpreters, communication links

Client-Server Architecture

RPC, indirection, peer to peer

Client-Server within a Machine (Virtualization)

Bounded buffers, threads, concurrency, virtual memory

Performance

Design approaches, multi-level memories, scheduling

Networking

Layers, sockets

Protection and Security

Authentication, access control, cryptography

Review of systems concepts using case studies

Staff