CSCI 340 Operating Systems
Fall 2007
Syllabus

Instructor:
Tyson Henry
OCNL 224, 898-5709, trhenry@csuchico.edu
Office Hours:  See my on-line schedule.


Prerequisites:       
    
CSCI 311 (formerly 151)  Algorithms and Data Structures
CSCI 320 (formerly 171)   Computer Architecture

If you have not completed both prerequisites with a grade of C- or better, I could fail you in 340 even if you complete all the work.

If you took the prerequisites at another university, they must be approved for transfer before starting 340.


Required Textbook:  (available at the CSUC bookstore)

Operating System Concepts
by Abraham Silberschatz, Greg Gagne, Peter Baer Galvin
ISBN: 978-0471694663
7th Edition

Grading:

Grading is relative. The students that do the best work will get an A, the students that don’t do as well will get a B, and so on. I do not follow the traditional percentage grades of 90% = A, 80% = B, etc., and I do not grade on a curve that defines how many students will receive each grade.

Students will receive a letter grade A-F (4.0 – 0.0) for each category (1 for exams, 1 for projects). The course grade will be a weighted average of the individual letter grades (see category percentages below). This mechanism allows for relative grading of each category (e.g., if the best score on the exams is a 60%, that student will probably receive an A for the exams, thus an A (not the 60%) will be averaged with the student’s other grades).  This grading mechanism means that you have to get an A on both the assignments and the exams to get an A in the course.


I will routinely post the grading spreadsheet (grades). If you are not happy with a grade, talk to me immediately. If you do not talk to me within a week of the posting of a grade, I will assume you think the grade is fair and accurate, and you will lose your right to dispute the grade.

Grade category percentages

Exams 60% of course grade  (2 midterms and a final)
Programming Projects 40% of course grade

The final exam will be weighted 1.5-2.0 times as much as each midterm. The final will be cumulative. All exams will cover material from the lecture, the textbook, and the programming projects.

As an example of how I distribute grades, look at the grade spread sheet from my 152 in  Fall 2004.

Programming Assignments:

There will be 4-6  programming assignments. 

Students can work individually or with one other student of their choosing.  You may work with the same or different people on each assignment.  If you choose to work with someone else you must always (90% of the time) work together (pair programming).  That is you must sit next to each other when you are working on the assignments.  To do otherwise (such as take turns implementing the assignments) will be considered cheating.

The easier assignments will be worth a smaller percentage of your grade than the harder assignments.  For each assignment, I will assign a weight when I assign the program.  However, as the semester progresses it may become apparent that the weight of an assignment is not congruent with the other assignments, and thus may be changed.

Late Assignments: 

Assignments turned in 1-24 hours after the due date will lose 10%

Assignments turned in 24-48 hours after the due date will lose 20%

Assignments will not be accepted more than 48 hours late.

E-mail:

I will routinely communicate with the class via e-mail. At the start of the class I will ask you to send me your preferred e-mail address.

You are required to read e-mail I send to the class.  Due to the nature of programming, e-mail is the best way to send updates on assignments.  I suggest that you make sure your e-mail is working.

Honesty:

 I expect all students to understand and follow the University’s honesty policies (http://www.csuchico.edu/prs/EMs/EM04/em04_36.htm). I will fail students who do not follow these policies, even if they don’t understand them. It is your responsibility to understand these policies.  If you are planning on cheating you might want to read my cheating policy.

Don't ignore cheating by your group members, your grade will certainly be impacted and you will have to provide evidence that you did not cheat.

Course Objectives:
Course Outcomes:

Students shall be able to: