6.824 - Spring 2004
General Information
Structure //
Grading policy //
Class meetings //
Staff //
Office Hours //
Useful Books
Structure
6.824 is a core graduate subject with
lectures, labs, quizzes, and a final project. 6.824 is 12 units. 6 EDPs.
Lectures are Tue/Thu 1:00pm to 2:30pm in 37-212.
- 1/2 lecture
- 1/2 paper discussion
Each lecture will have one assigned paper to read. You should read
this paper before coming to class, and be prepared
to discuss it. You can find out what paper to read for each meeting
in the schedule.
We will post a question about each paper 24 hours before
we discuss the paper. Please bring your answer to class on a sheet of paper
and hand it in. Your answer need only be long enough to demonstrate that
you understand the paper; a paragraph or two will usually be enough.
We won't hand back the questions, but we will glance at them to make
sure your answer makes sense, and they will count for part of the
paper discussion grade.
6.824 will have a mid-term and a final.
There are programming labs due every week or two for the first half of the term.
In the second half of the term you'll undertake
a project in small teams.
Each team will
design and implement a system of its choice.
Each team will also write a research paper about its project.
Grading
Grade for this class will be based on:
- 25% labs (programming assignments)
- 40% project (programming and paper)
- 25% mid-term and final
- 10% paper discussion participation and paper questions
The late policy for programming assignments is as follows. You can
hand assignments in late, but the total amount of lateness summed over
all the assignments must not exceed 72 hours. If you hand in an
assignment late, and your total late time (include the late time for
that assignment) exceeds 72 hours, we will give that assignment a
grade of D. Note that a D is better than the grade you'd get if you
handed in nothing. You can divide up your 72 hours among the
assignments however you like; you don't have to ask or tell us.
If you want an exception to this rule, please bring us a letter
from a dean.
Collaboration policy
You must write all the code you hand in for the programming assignments,
except for code that we give you as part of the assigment. You are
not allowed to look at anyone else's solution (and you're not allowed
to look at solutions from previous years). You may discuss the
assignments with other students, but you may not look at or use
each other's code.
You may discuss the questions for each discussion paper with other
students, but you may not look at other student's answers. You must
write your answer yourself.
Class meetings
6.824 meets TR 1-2:30 in 37-212.
Staff
Office hours
Office hours will be held in the 5th floor lounge of NE43 (CSAIL) every weekday from 3-4pm. If no one is in the lounge, drop by room 520a (in the corner, through 521a).
Useful Books
The following books may help provide background for 6.824 or help with
lab programming. None of them are required. They are listed in rough
order of usefulness.
- UNIX Network Programming. Volume 1: Networking APIs: Sockets and
XTI. W. Richard Stevens.
- Modern Operating Systems. Andrew Tanenbaum. Prentice Hall.
- Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms, Andrew Tanenbaum
and Maarten van Steen, Prentice Hall.
- The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating
System. Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, John
S. Quarterman.
- The C++ Programming Language. Bjarne Stroustrup. Addison Wesley.
- Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment. W. Richard Stevens.
Questions or comments regarding 6.824? Send e-mail to
6.824-staff@pdos.lcs.mit.edu.
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