CSE599W: Operating Systems and the Web, Winter 2010

University of Washington Department of Computer Science & Engineering

[ Annoucements | Administrivia | Papers | Schedule ]

CSE599W is a special topics course on operating systems and the Web. As many have observed, desktop operating systems and web browsers have been on a collision course for the past decade. In this course, we'll examine research papers and industrial systems that are suggestive of what OSs, browsers, and the web could become. Our goal for the quarter will be answer several questions, such as:

How do web-based programs and desktop programs differ, and what are the implications of this?
If browsers and OSs do converge, how should the conventional architectural view of an operating system change? How should each of the major components, such as device drivers, file systems, memory management, the process model, protection, and communications be reconsidered?
What can we learn from prior work on distributed operating systems, and can we identify what's different "this time" around?

Your job in class will be primarily to read assigned research papers and come to class prepared for discussion. As well, you will likely be assigned one or two topics for which you'll act as a discussion leader. We will also have a few small programming or design assignments.

Announcements

1/07/10: The reading list for next week is up. See the Papers section of this web page for instructions on accessing them and submitting your paper discussion comments.
1/06/10: Readings for next week will be posted this evening, and are due before class on Monday.
1/06/10: Please sign up for the class mailing list.

Administrivia

Class schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:00-1:20pm, MGH 238.
Instructor: Steve Gribble. Office hours by appointment (send email). You can also stop by my office, CSE578, anytime I'm in.

Papers

Before each class, you should read the paper(s) assigned for that day. For each lecture, I will post one or two discussion questions based on the readings. If you are registered for the course, you are required to add a unique comment to the discussion thread of one of the questions for the day.

So that everyone has time to read all comments, your comment is due by 9am on the day of the lecture. Note that the earlier you post, the easier it is to be unique. Please keep your entries short: they can be anything that provides insight into the discussion question. (My thanks to Tom Anderson for this paper summary model!)

The links you need:

the list of paper readings. Use this to figure out which readings are due for each lecture and to get access to the papers themselves.
the catalyst discussion board. Use this to find the discussion questions and post your reply comments. Hopefully the board should be self-explanatory; you will need a UW NetID to access it, however.

Schedule

Here's an overview of the course schedule, the paper reading topics, and assignments have been given out.

Date	Lecture slides/notes	Reading topic	Assignments
W 1/06	intro
M 1/11	no class today
W 1/13		browser architecture
M 1/18	no class today -- MLK day
W 1/20		browser architecture
M 1/25		browser architecture
W 1/27		extensibility
M 2/01		storage
W 2/03		storage
M 2/08	no class today -- Steve is traveling
W 2/10	no class today -- Steve is traveling
M 2/15	no class today -- Presidents Day
W 2/17		distributed OSs
M 2/22		drivers
W 2/24		web programming
M 3/01		extensions and plugins
W 3/03		debugging
M 3/08		identity and authentication
W 3/10		forensics and audit

Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington
Box 352350
Seattle, WA 98195-2350
(206) 543-1695 voice, (206) 543-2969 FAX
[comments to gribble at cs.washington.edu]