COMP 211-002 | Spring 2023 | UNC Chapel Hill

COMP 211-002: Systems Fundamentals, Spring 2023

Key Details

Instructor: Joshua Bakita
Location: 201 Chapman Hall, Tues/Thurs 2:00-3:15
Contact Email: s23-comp-211-002-staff-cs@cs.unc.edu
Description: This course is a first step into the wild and wonderful world of systems programming, primarily in C. Your main takeaways from this class should be fundamental principles about how programs and the systems they run on work (particularly how they manage memory), no matter what language you use.

Syllabus Piazza (See Sakai for access code.) Gradescope Sakai

Schedule

Class #	Materials	Date	Assignment	Readings
1	recording, slides	Jan 10
2	recording, slides	Jan 12	Assignment 1 Released	Intro through Sec. 1.2 of The C Programming Language (13 pgs) Sec. 5.7 of The GNU C Reference Manual (1 pg)
3	recording, slides	Jan 17		Sec. 2.1--2.1.6 and 2.1.8--2.1.10 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (7 pgs) Sec. 2.2--2.2.1 and 2.2.4--2.2.7 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (19 pgs) Sec. 2.1, 2.2 of The C Programming Language (2 pgs)
4	recording, slides	Jan 19		Sec. 7.2, 1.6, and 1.9 of The C Programming Language (7 pgs) Sec. 2.5.5 and 12.12 through 12.12.6 of The GNU C Library Reference Manual (10 pgs) Sec. 1 through 5 of ANSI Standard X3.4-1977 (5 pgs)
5	recording, slides	Jan 24		Sec. 2.3, 6.1-6.5, and 6.7-6.9 of The C Programming Language (27 pgs) Sec. 2.2 through 2.4 of The GNU C Reference Manual (9 pgs)
6	recording, slides	Jan 26	Assignment 1 Due Assignment 2 Released	Sec. 1.4 of The C Programming Language (1 pg) Sec. 8.2--8.2.1 of Programming Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (2 pg) Sec. 20.1 of The GNU C Reference Manual (2 pgs) Optional: Sec. III-A of Dissecting the CUDA scheduling hierarchy... (1/4 pg) Optional: Videos in Resources on bytes, two's complement, and endianness (38.5 min)
7	recording, slides	Jan 31		Sec. 2.7, 5.1, 5.3, and 5.5 of The C Programming Language (13 pgs)
8	recording, slides	Feb 2		Sec. 2.11, 5.2, 5.6, 5.10, 7.1(note), 7.5, and 7.6 of The C Programming Language (15 pgs)
9		Feb 7		Sec. 2.9 and 4.11 of The C Programming Language (7 pgs) Review Sec. 2.1.8--2.1.10 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (5 pgs)
10	Midterm 1	Feb 9	Assignment 2 Due Assignment 3 Released	Midterm 1 Study Guide
11		Feb 16		Sec. 2.2.2--2.2.3 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (8 pgs)

Office Hours

Resources & Textbooks

The C Programming Language (2nd Ed.)---Commonly known as "K&R C", this classic is probably worth buying, but can be found online (PDF).
Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (any edition)---Good for deep-dives on systems particulars, this is easily found online (PDF).
The GNU C Reference Manual---A handy C quick reference. Accessible on the class server via the command info gnu-c and online (HTML, PDF).
The GNU C Library Reference Manual---A detailed manual for C library functions. Accessible on the class server via the command info libc and online (HTML, PDF).
ASCII Escape Codes: 1979 to 2023---Why is coloring terminal text so complicated? Answered in this video produced for the class. (Standards ANSI X3.4 1977, ANSI X3.64 1979, ECMA-48 1991, and ITU-T Rec. T.416 referenced in the video).
Where did Bytes Come From?---Why 8 bits in a byte? This video explains why.
Why We Use Two's Complement---This video builds on your reading in Computer Systems by explaining why we use two's complement to represent negative numbers.
Endianness Explained With an Egg---Where exactly do we have to deal with endianness? Why is it important? This video explains.

Team 211

Joshua Bakita (Instructor). Joshua is a 5th year PhD student in Computer Science at UNC, researching real-time task execution for GPUs in autonomous vehicles. He has published at venues including ECRTS, RTSS, and RTAS, and has worked at Waymo, Microsoft, General Motors, Capital One, and the UK House of Commons. His programming passion is to write elegant and supremely efficient code. Web
Kangda Wei (Teaching Assistant). Kangda is a BS/MS student in Computer Science at UNC, researching in Natural Language Processing. He has published venues including NAACL, CICTP, and hopefully ACL soon. He has an Alaskan Malamute, whose name is Pika.
Alex "Amin" Zamani (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant). Amin is a junior majoring in Computer Science, with a Entrepreneurship Minor. He has been coding since the age of 12 and recently interned at Genesys and SIG.
Andrew Byerle (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant). Andrew is a senior from Northern Virginia majoring in Computer Science and Music. In his free time he loves playing basketball, and with friends, spikeball, and golf. After he graduates in May, he will be working at WillowTree in Durham.
Kenan Poole (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant). Kenan is a senior majoring in Computer Science, with minors in Lingustics and Studio Art. He's particularly interested in UI/UX Design, and is always looking for a new board game to learn and loves replaying the ones he already knows.
Ryan Good (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant). Ryan is a senior majoring in Computer Science and English, as well as minoring in Japanese. As a visual learner, he's keen to use a whiteboard during office hours and has a healthy respect for getting the basics down pat. After undergrad, he'll be joining Appian in Virginia, but will definitely remain a life-long student!
Tom Xu (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant). Tom is a senior student majoring in Computer Science and Economics.
Yufan Liu (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant). Yufan is a senior majoring computer science and mathematics, with a minor in statistics. His programming passion is to write code as elegant as poetry.