Seminar on classic systems papers

Like in previous terms, there will be another seminar on cool systems papers. This term we will depart from our common focus, cool recent papers, and instead look at classic (often very old) papers. Many of the papers will be widely accepted as classics, while others will be less well-known (yet very insightful). Our hope is that, in addition to improving our foundations in previous lessons learned, we can gain new insights into system design/implementation by re-examining these classic works.

The seminar is completely informal and does not earn one any credits. The structure of the seminar is simple. We will meet once per week for an hour and discuss one (or more, if closely related) paper. One of you will prepare a 20 minute presentation on one of the papers; after that we will debate the merits of the paper. You can choose which paper you would like to present.

The new time and place for the meeting is Mondays at 4pm in 516.

Obviously, it will not be possible to cover all papers/topics that merit inclusion. Also, it will often be difficult to select just one paper about a given system/topic. In such cases, we will identify several, rank them (roughly) and ask that everyone read at least the first in the list. We will not have on-line copies of most of these papers. Copies will be made available in advance of the seminar.

The schedule as of 3/22/96 is:

2/7 Microkernels
P.B. Hansen, "The Nucleus of a Multiprogramming System", Communications of the ACM, 13 (4), April 1970, pp. 238-250.

B. Wichman, "A Modular Operating System", IFIP Congress, 1968, pp. 548-556.
2/14 Extensible Systems
B. Lampson, originally entitled "On Reliable and Extendible Operating Systems", Sept. 5, 1969 (Computer Center, UC Berkeley).
2/21 Access Control (X)
B. Lampson, "Protection", Fifth Princeton Symposium on Information Sciences and Systems, Princeton University, March 1971, pp. 437-443, reprinted in Operating Systems Review, Jan. 1974, pp. 18-24.
3/4 Multics
F. Corbato, J. Saltzer, C. Clingen, "Multics - The First Seven Years", Spring Joint Computer Conference, 1972, pp. 571-583.

J. Saltzer, "Protection and the Control of Information Sharing in Multics", Communications of the ACM, 17 (7), July 1974, pp. 388-402.

J. Saltzer, "The Instrumentation of Multics", Communications of the ACM, 13 (8), August 1970, pp. 495-500.

F. Corbato, V. Vyssotsky, "Introduction and Overview of the Multics System", AFIPS Conference 27, 1965, pp. 185-196.

F. Corbato, C. Clingen, "A Managerial View of the Multics System Development", Conference on Research Directions in Software Technology, October 1977, pp. 139-158.
3/25 Advice and lessons learned (No meeting: SPRING BREAK)
R. Levin, D. Redell, "An Evaluation of the Ninth SOSP Submissions or How (and How Not) to Write a Good Systems Paper", Operating Systems Review, July 1983, pp. 35-40.

B. Lampson, H. Sturgis, "Reflections on an Operating System Design", Communications of the ACM, 19 (5), May 1976, pp. 251-265.

B. Lampson, "Hints for Computer System Design", 9th ACM SOSP, Oct. 1983, pp. 33-48.

J. Saltzer, D. Reed, D. Clark, "End-to-End Arguments in System Design", ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 2 (4), Nov. 1984, pp. 277-288.

B. Forscher, "Rules for referees", Science 150, October 15, 1995, pp. 319-321.
4/1 Personal Computers
C. Thacker, et alia, "Alto: A Personal Computer", XEROX PARC report CSL-79-11, August 7, 1979.

B. Lampson, R. Sproull, "An Open Operating System for a Single-User Machine", 7th ACM SOSP, Dec. 1979, pp. 98-105.
4/8 Hydra
W. Wulf, et alia, "HYDRA: The Kernel of a Multiprocessor Operating System", Communications of the ACM, 17 (6), June 1974, pp. 337-345.

W. Wulf, at alia, "Overview of the Hydra Operating System Development", 5th ACM SOSP, Nov. 1975, pp. 122-131.

R. Levin, et alia, "Policy/Mechanism Separation in HYDRA", 5th ACM SOSP, Nov. 1975, pp. 132-140.

E. Cohen, D. Jacobson, "Protection in the Hydra Operating System", 5th ACM SOSP, Nov. 1975, pp. 141-160.
4/15 Database Systems
D. Chamberlin, et alia, "A History and Evaluation of System R", Communications of the ACM, 24 (10), Oct. 1981, pp. 632-646.

M. Astrahan, et alia, "System R: Relational Approach to Database Management", ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 1 (2), 1976, pp. 97-137.
4/22 Network Protocols
D. Clark, D. Tennenhouse, "Architectural Considerations for a New Generation of Protocols", ACM SIGCOMM 1990, pp. 200-208.

V. Jacobson, "Congestion Avoidance and Control", ACM SIGCOMM, August 1988, pp. 314-329.

D. Clark, "The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols", ACM SIGCOMM, August 1988, pp. 106-114.

D. Clark, et alia, "An Analysis of TCP Processing Overhead", IEEE Communications Magazine, 27 (6), June 1989, pp. 23-29.
4/29 Cancelled due to conflicts.
5/6 User Interfaces
I. Sutherland, "SketchPad A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System", Spring Joint Computer Conference, 1963, pp. 329-346.

In Memoriam: J.C.R. Licklider 1915-1990, Digital:61, August 7, 1990, two reprinted papers.
5/13 Distributed Programming
B. Liskov, "Distributed Programming in Argus", Communications of the ACM, 31 (3), March 1988, pp. 300-312.

A. Black, "Supporting Distributed Applications: Experience with Eden", 10th ACM SOSP, 1985, pp. 181-193.