Operating Systems (Spring 2026) | SNU Systems Software & Architecture Laboratory

News

   The grading policy has been adjusted again: Midterm 35% 30%, Final 40% 45%, Projects: 25%

(Posted Apr 14, 2026)

   Please note the following information on the midterm exam:
   • Time: 14:00 - 15:15, April 21.
   • Location: #301-203
   • Scope: Textbook Chap. 2, 4-8, 13-16, 18-22, xv6 book Chap. 1-6, Materials covered by lecture slides and project assignments (PA1, PA2)
   • Closed-book exam
   • Bring your student ID

(Posted Apr 14, 2026)

   The third project assignment has been posted here. The due date is 11:59 PM, May 3.

(Posted Apr 9, 2026)

Schedule

The following schedule is tentative and subject to change without notice.

Day Topic Reading
3/3 Course overview
3/5 Introduction to operating systems 2
3/10 Architectural support for OS 6
3/12
3/17 Processes 4, 5
3/19 CPU scheduling (Updated on 3/19) 7, 8
Lab Session 1 @ 7:00pm (Online)
3/24
3/26 Virtual memory 13, 14, 15, 16
3/31 Paging 18
4/2 Page tables 20
4/7 Invited Talk: Optimizing the Linux Scheduler for Gaming… and the Road Ahead (Dr. Changwoo Min)
4/9 TLB 19
4/10 Lab Session 2 @ 6:00pm (Online)
4/14 Memory Mapping
4/16 Swapping 21, 22
4/21 Midterm Exam
4/23 Virtual Memory Implementations 23
4/28 Threads 26, 27
4/30 Locks 28
5/5 National Holiday
Semaphores 31
5/7 Monitors
5/12
5/14 Condition variables 30
5/19 I/O
5/21 Hard disk drives (HDDs) 36, 37
5/26 File systems 39
5/28 File system implementation 40
6/2 Fast file system 41
6/4 File system consistency 42
6/9 Solid state drives (SSDs) 44
6/11 Final Exam

Credit: Most of slides for this lecture are based on materials provided by the authors of the textbook and references.

Projects

For project submission and automatic grading, we are running a dedicated server at https://sys.snu.ac.kr. If you want to access the sys server outside of the SNU campus, please send a request via a Google Form whose URL is posted in the eTL.

Project #3: CPU Hotplugging

CPU hotplugging is the ability of an operating system to dynamically bring a CPU core online or take it offline while the system is running. This mechanism is useful for power management, fault isolation, and adapting the number of active CPUs to the current workload. In this project, you will extend xv6 so that individual harts can be turned on and off at runtime in a controlled and safe manner. The goal is to understand the low-level interaction between the scheduler, interrupts, and multiprocessor hardware while implementing a practical OS mechanism for dynamic CPU management.

  • Project specification available here
  • Due date: 11:59 PM, May 3 (Sunday).

Project #2: System Calls

System calls are interfaces that allow user applications to request various services from the operating system kernel. This project aims to explore and understand how system calls are implemented in the xv6 operating system.

  • Project specification available here
  • Due date: 11:59 PM, April 5 (Sunday).

Project #1: Hello world, xv6

xv6 is an instructional operating system developed by MIT based on Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie’s Unix version 6 (v6). In this course, we will use xv6-riscv, a version recently ported to a multi-core RISC-V machine. The goal of this project is to set up your development environment on Linux or macOS and familiarize yourself with our project submission server.

  • Project specification available here
  • Due date: 11:59 PM, March 17 (Tuesday).

xv6 Resources

Course Information

When 14:00 - 15:15 (Tuesday / Thursday)
Where Lecture room #301-203, Engineering Building I
Instructor Jin-Soo Kim
Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, SNU
Language Korean
Course Description This course covers fundamental operating system concepts, such as process management, memory management, I/O systems, and file systems, with an in-depth study of the latest Linux operating system. In addition, students will engage in several hands-on projects using the xv6 instructional OS.
Textbook Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau, Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces, Arpaci-Dusseau Books, November 2023 (Version 1.10)
References Thomas Anderson and Michael Dahlin, Operating Systems: Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition, Recursive Books, August 2014.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Herbert Bos, Modern Operating Systems, 5th Edition, Pearson, March 2022.
Prerequisites M1522.000800 System Programming
4190.308 Computer Architecture
Grading Exams: 75% (Midterm 35% 30%, Final 40% 45%)
Projects: 25%
* Grading policy is subject to change
Teaching Assistants Heejae Kim, Sujin Park, and Minwook Kim (snucsl.ta AT gmail.com)