Timothy Roscoe: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2021

Award: The Golden Owl
Name Prof. Dr. Timothy Roscoe
FieldInformatik
Address
Institut für Computing Platforms
ETH Zürich, STF H 314
Stampfenbachstrasse 114
8092 Zürich
SWITZERLAND
Telephone+41 44 632 88 40
E-mailtroscoe@inf.ethz.ch
URLhttp://people.inf.ethz.ch/troscoe/
DepartmentComputer Science
RelationshipFull Professor

NumberTitleECTSHoursLecturers
252-0061-00LSystems Programming and Computer Architecture Information 7 credits4V + 2UT. Roscoe, A. Klimovic
AbstractIntroduction to systems programming. C and assembly language,
floating point arithmetic, basic translation of C into assembler,
compiler optimizations, manual optimizations. How hardware features
like superscalar architecture, exceptions and interrupts, caches,
virtual memory, multicore processors, devices, and memory systems
function and affect correctness, performance, and optimization.
ObjectiveThe course objectives are for students to:

1. Develop a deep understanding of, and intuition about, the execution
of all the layers (compiler, runtime, OS, etc.) between programs in
high-level languages and the underlying hardware: the impact of
compiler decisions, the role of the operating system, the effects
of hardware on code performance and scalability, etc.

2. Be able to write correct, efficient programs on modern hardware,
not only in C but high-level languages as well.

3. Understand Systems Programming as a complement to other disciplines
within Computer Science and other forms of software development.

This course does not cover how to design or build a processor or
computer.
ContentThis course provides an overview of "computers" as a
platform for the execution of (compiled) computer programs. This
course provides a programmer's view of how computer systems execute
programs, store information, and communicate. The course introduces
the major computer architecture structures that have direct influence
on the execution of programs (processors with registers, caches, other
levels of the memory hierarchy, supervisor/kernel mode, and I/O
structures) and covers implementation and representation issues only
to the extend that they are necessary to understand the structure and
operation of a computer system.

The course attempts to expose students to the practical issues that
affect performance, portability, security, robustness, and
extensibility. This course provides a foundation for subsequent
courses on operating systems, networks, compilers and many other
courses that require an understanding of the system-level
issues. Topics covered include: machine-level code and its generation
by optimizing compilers, address translation, input and output,
trap/event handlers, performance evaluation and optimization (with a
focus on the practical aspects of data collection and analysis).
Lecture notes- C programmnig
- Integers
- Pointers and dynamic memory allocation
- Basic computer architecture
- Compiling C control flow and data structures
- Code vulnerabilities
- Implementing memory allocation
- Linking
- Floating point
- Optimizing compilers
- Architecture and optimization
- Caches
- Exceptions
- Virtual memory
- Multicore
- Devices
LiteratureThe course is based in part on "Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective" (3rd Edition) by R. Bryant and D. O'Hallaron, with additional material.
Prerequisites / Notice252-0029-00L Parallel Programming
252-0028-00L Design of Digital Circuits
252-0217-00LComputer Systems Information 8 credits4V + 2U + 1AT. Roscoe, S. Shinde, R. Wattenhofer
AbstractThis course is about real computer systems, and the principles on which they are designed and built. We cover both modern OSes and the large-scale distributed systems that power today's online services. We illustrate the ideas with real-world examples, but emphasize common theoretical results, practical tradeoffs, and design principles that apply across many different scales and technologies.
ObjectiveThe objective of the course is for students to understand the theoretical principles, practical considerations, performance tradeoffs, and engineering techniques on which the software underpinning almost all modern computer systems is based, ranging from single embedded systems-on-chip in mobile phones to large-scale geo-replicated groups of datacenters.

By the end of the course, students should be able to reason about highly complex, real, operational software systems, applying concepts such as hierarchy, modularity, consistency, durability, availability, fault-tolerance, and replication.
ContentThis course subsumes the topics of both "operating systems" and "distributed systems" into a single coherent picture (reflecting the reality that these disciplines are highly converged). The focus is system software: the foundations of modern computer systems from mobile phones to the large-scale geo-replicated data centers on which Internet companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are based.

We will cover a range of topics, such as: scheduling, network protocol stacks, multiplexing and demultiplexing, operating system structure, inter-process communication, memory managment, file systems, naming, dataflow, data storage, persistence, and durability, computer systems performance, remove procedure call, consensus and agreement, fault tolerance, physical and logical clocks, virtualization, and blockchains.

The format of the course is a set of about 25 topics, each covered in a lecture. A script will be published online ahead of each lecture, and the latter will consist of an interactive elaboration of the material in the script. There is no book for the course, but we will refer to books and research papers throughout to provide additional background and explanation.
Prerequisites / NoticeWe will assume knowlege of the "Systems Programming" and "Computer Networks" courses (or equivalent), and their prerequisites, and build upon them.
252-0817-00LDistributed Systems Laboratory10 credits9PG. Alonso, T. Hoefler, A. Klimovic, T. Roscoe, R. Wattenhofer, C. Zhang
AbstractThis course involves the participation in a substantial development and/or evaluation project involving distributed systems technology. There are projects available in a wide range of areas: from web services to ubiquitous computing including wireless networks, ad-hoc networks, RFID, and distributed applications on smartphones.
ObjectiveGain hands-on-experience with real products and the latest technology in distributed systems.
ContentThis course involves the participation in a substantial development and/or evaluation project involving distributed systems technology. There are projects available in a wide range of areas: from web services to ubiquitous computing including as well wireless networks, ad-hoc networks, and distributed application on smartphones. The goal of the project is for the students to gain hands-on-experience with real products and the latest technology in distributed systems. There is no lecture associated to the course.