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 (1st Ed) (7 pgs) Sec. 2.2–2.2.1 and 2.2.4–2.2.7 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (1st Ed) (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 of The GNU C Reference Manual (1 pg) Sec. 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 (1st Ed) (2 pg) Sec. 20.1 of The GNU C Library 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, 7.6, and B1.6 of The C Programming Language (15 pgs) Sec. 6.1.2 (first half, stop at practice problem 6.3) in Computer Systems... (1st Ed) (5 pgs)
9	recording, slides	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 (1st Ed) (5 pgs)
10	Midterm 1	Feb 9	Assignment 2 Due	Midterm 1 Study Guide, Slides from TA-led Review Session, Exam Format Sample
11	slides, no recording	Feb 16		Sec. 2.2.2–2.2.3 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (1st Ed) (8 pgs) Video in Resources on two's complement (16.25 min) Optional: Advanced Info on Structs/Unions: Sec. 3.9 in Computer Systems... (1st Ed) (7 pgs)
12	slides, recording	Feb 21	Assignment 3 Released	Sec. 5.11 and 7.8.5 of The C Programming Language (4 pgs) Sec. 10.9.1–10.9.2 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (1st Ed) (4 pgs) Sec. 3.2.3.1–3.2.3.5 in The GNU C Library Reference Manual (4 pgs) *Sec. 5.4 in The C Programming Language* (4 pgs)**
13	slides, recording	Feb 23		Sec. 1.10, and 4.3 through 4.6 of The C Programming Language (14 pgs) Sec. 1.2, 7.1, and 7.2 of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (1st Ed) (6 pgs) Sec. 2.9 of The GNU C Reference Manual (2 pgs)
14	slides, recording	Feb 28		*Sec. 8.2.2–8.3, and 9 through 9.1 in Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective* (11 pgs)**
15	slides, recording	March 2		Sec. 14.1 (1st Ed) or 13.1 (2nd Ed) in UNIX Power Tools (3 pgs) Sec. 1 through 1.2 (7th Ed) in Operating System Concepts (9 pgs)
16	slides, no recording	March 7	Assignment 3 Due Assignment 4 Released	Sec. 1.3 (can skip to "Opening the Box") in Computer Organization and Design (13 pgs) Preface and Chapter 1 of Understanding Software Dynamics (12 pgs)
17	slides, recording	March 9		Chap. 3 up through 3.4 in Understanding Software Dynamics (6 pgs) Intro text on a cache: Sec. 7.1 (3rd Ed) or 5.1 (4th Ed) in Computer Organization and Design (6 pgs)
18	slides, recording	March 21		Sec. 8.5 through 8.7 in Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (1st Ed) (20 pgs)
19	no slides, recording	March 23		ACM Queue, Benchmarking "Hello, World!" (link) *Sec. 3.8 in The C Programming Language* (1 pg)**
20	Midterm 2	March 28	Assignment 4 Due	Midterm 2 Study Guide
21	slides, no recording	March 30	Assignment 5 Released
22	slides, recording	April 4		Post-Midterm-2 Review Guide Sec. 7.4 in 3rd Ed (5.4 in 4th Ed) in Computer Organization and Design, but: - Skip after paragraph two of subsec. "Making Address Translation Fast: The TLB" - Skip subsec. "Integrating Virtual Memory, TLB, and Caches" - Skip subsec. "Handling TLB Misses and Page Faults" (24 pgs) Hover for notes on above reading: Note 1, Note 2, Note 3. *Sec. 10.8 (1st Ed) of Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective* (6 pgs)**
23	slides, recording	April 11		*Sec. 10.4 (1st Ed) in Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective* (3 pgs)**
24	slides, recording	April 13		Chap. 1 of Managing Projects with GNU Make (3rd Ed) (6 pgs)
25	slides, recording	April 18
26	slides, recording	April 20		Sec. 11.1, 11.6, 11.7 (1st Ed) in Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (5 pgs) Sec. 15 Intro through 15.2 in The GNU C Library Reference Manual (4 pgs) Optional IPC overview: Sec. 3.4 and 3.5 (7th Ed) in Operating System Concepts (11 pgs)
27	slides, recording	April 25		Sec. 10.11 (1st Ed) in Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (5 pgs)
28	slides, recording	April 27		Research Interest Form, Assignment Improvement Points
29	Final Exam at noon	May 2	Assignment 5 Due	Final Exam Study Guide, Review Session Questions, Review Session Slides, Recording

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—Good for deep-dives on systems particulars, this is easily found online (3rd Edition PDF, 0th Edition 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).
UNIX Power Tools—Explains how to use the terminal faster! Handy to flip through on paper, but also accessible online (2nd Edition HTML).
Operating Systems Concepts—An advanced text covering operating systems. I have three extra 7th Ed. paper copies you can borrow, but it can also be found online (7th Edition PDF).
Computer Organization and Design—The classic text for COMP 411 and now 311. Contains some prerequite information about how systems work that we need to know to tune performance. I have an extra paper 3rd edition copy you could borrow, but it can also be found online (4th Edition PDF).
Understanding Software Dynamics—A recent and excellent text on optimizing software performance. The author most recently spent 12 years as a Senior Staff Engineer at Google, and recently visited UNC to teach a graduate class with this text. The Preface through Chap. 3 are available via Amazon's "Look inside" feature, and I'm in discussions with the author about making some other sections available (Amazon).
Managing Projects with GNU Make—An accessible coverage of how to effectively use make. This book is freely available under the GNU Free Documentation License (3rd Edition PDF), but is also available in print.
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.