George Mason University
Department of Computer Science

Instructor: Dr. Hakan Aydin (aydin@cs.gmu.edu)
Meeting Times and Location: Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00 - 4:15 PM, Robinson Hall A111
Instructor's Office Hours: Wednesday 1:30 – 2:30 PM, and by appointment (Office: Engineering Building, Room 5308)

Description: This course provides an introduction to computer systems from a programmer's perspective. Topics include machine-level representation of data and programs, linking and loading, processes, virtual memory, and memory allocation.

Prerequisites: Grade of C or better in CS 262 (or CS 222) and grade of C or better in ECE 301 (or ECE 331).
Prerequisites will be strictly enforced.

Course Outcomes: Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of computer arithmetic and logic operations and representations of data at the machine-level.
• Demonstrate knowledge of machine-level representations of (C) programs.
• Demonstrate an ability to use debuggers.
• Demonstrate an understanding of object file linking and related ideas such as relocatable object files and symbol resolution.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the idea of a process, how processes are created and laid out in memory, and how processes use virtual memory.
• Demonstrate an understanding of dynamic memory allocation and garbage collection schemes.

Readings: The required textbook is Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective by Randal Bryant and David O'Hallaron (Pearson, 3rd edition, 2015). A reference text for the C programming language is the classic Kernighan and Ritchie book The C Programming Language (Prentice Hall, 2nd edition, 1988).

Topics:

• Introduction and Course Overview
• Representing and Manipulating Information
• Machine-Level Representation of Programs
• Linking
• Dynamic Memory Allocation
• Memory Hierarchy
• Exceptional Control Flow
• Virtual Memory

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA):
Nasrin Akhter (nakhter3@masonlive.gmu.edu) Office Hours: Wednesday 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM; Thursday 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM. (ENGR 4456)
Maofei Chen (mchen18@masonlive.gmu.edu) Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM; Thursday 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM. (ENGR 5321)

Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTA):
Nabil Darwich (ndarwich@masonlive.gmu.edu) Office Hours: Wednesday 4:00 PM - 5:45 PM; Thursday 12:00 noon - 1:15 PM. (ENGR 4456)
Thi Nguyen (tnguy138@masonlive.gmu.edu) Office Hours: Monday 10:30 AM - 12:00 noon; Wednesday 10:30 AM - 12:00 noon. (ENGR 4456)

Grading: Grading components will be as follows.

• Quizzes and Homeworks: 15%
• Lab assignments: 30%
• Midterm exams: 30%
• Final exam: 25%

The students must obtain a total score of at least 90 (out of 100) to be considered for an A. A total score less than 50 or a final exam score less than 40 will result in F. No early midterm/final exams will be given and make-up exams are strongly discouraged.  A student should present an official and verifiable excuse to miss a midterm/final exam (such as a doctor's note).

All exams are closed book. The final exam will be cumulative; that is, it will include all the topics discussed during the term. Unlike the midterm and final exams, the timing of the quizzes will not be announced in advance.

Late assignment submissions (when allowed) will be subject to a late penalty as indicated on the assignment specification. The students are responsible for keeping back-ups of their work while they are working on an assignment.

All students must abide by the GMU Honor Code and CS Department's Honor Code and Academic Integrity Policies during the semester. The students are supposed to work individually on the assignments. Collaboration will be allowed only for the group assignments/labs, within each group. We reserve the right to use automated tools such as MOSS to detect plagiarism. Violations of the Honor Code will result in an F. Those violations will be also reported to the GMU Honor Council.

The students, if they feel that their work is not accurately graded, must initiate contact with the grader within a week of receiving the grade (either in the lecture during which it was first handed out or on the Blackboard). Grade contesting beyond this time window will not be allowed.

Class Home Page: Throughout the term, all course material (announcements, slides, handouts, etc.) will be available on the GMU Blackboard system.

Computer Accounts: All students should have accounts on VSE Unix cluster (aka zeus.vse.gmu.edu). Instructions and related links can be found here. Your programs will be tested and graded on the VSE Unix Cluster. If you develop your programs on systems other than zeus, it will be your responsibility to port them to zeus before the submission deadlines.

Contacting the instructors/TAs: The preferred communication medium is Piazza. The students can send private messages to the instructors (professor, GTAs, UTAs) as well as post public questions visible to all students and tag everything by topic. The students should make sure to sign up for the Piazza page of CS 367 Section 002.

Classroom Behavior: During the lectures, the students should avoid behavior that may distract others, including chatting, sleeping, playing games. The use of electronic devices (including laptops, tablets, cell phones, smartphones, etc.) is not allowed in this class. If you feel that your learning will be hampered by not having access to your tablet/laptop computer for note-taking or other course-related purpose, you should speak to the instructor at the beginning of the term.

Disability Statement: If you have a learning or physical difference that may affect your academic work, you will need to furnish appropriate documentation to GMU Disability Resource Center. If you qualify for accommodation, the DRC staff will give you a form detailing appropriate accommodations for your instructor. If you have such a condition, you must talk to the instructor during the first week of the term about the issue.