Calendar
Below is a preview of the week-by-week plan for the quarter. There may be adjustments and rearrangements as we go.
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In the readings listed below, B&O is Computer Systems (Bryant and O'Hallaron), K&R is The C Programming Language (Kernighan and Ritchie) accessible here (requires free Open Library account to borrow), and Essential C is a PDF available at http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/101. B&O scanned PDFs for the listed readings are available on Canvas under the "Files" tab.
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Lecture videos are posted on Canvas under the "Panopto Course Videos" tab.
Lecture Code
Any code examples worked in class will be posted after lecture into /afs/ir/class/cs107/lecture-code/lect[N] where you replace [N] with the lecture number. You can make a copy to compile or modify by doing the following, which will make a folder in the current location called lect[N] that is a copy of the lect[N] code.
cp -r /afs/ir/class/cs107/lecture-code/lect[N] lect[N]
You can also view lecture code from your web browser by clicking here.
| Topics | Readings | Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | ||
| Lecture 1 (Mon 4/3): Welcome to CS107! We'll go through course logistics, learning goals, and a tour of Unix and the command line. |
Lecture 1 Slides Handouts: Syllabus, Honor Code B&O Ch 1 - skim this chapter for a quick overview of what is meant by systems, and for a preview of topics to come. |
Out: assign0 |
| Lecture 2 (Wed 4/5): Unix and C We'll get started with the command line and introduce the C programming language. | Lecture 2 Slides Lecture 2 Code |
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| No labs this week. | ||
| Lecture 3 (Fri 4/7): Integers, Bits and Bytes Topic 1: How can a computer represent integer numbers? We'll learn about the representation of the integer types: char, short, int, and long, in both unsigned and two's complement signed. We'll discuss integer arithmetic, overflow, truncation and sign extension, and how mixed signed and unsigned comparison operations work. |
Lecture 3 Slides Lecture 3 Code B&O Ch 2.2-2.3 - skim the formal proofs, but it's important to take away a solid working knowledge of two's complement and behaviors of integer operations. |
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| Week 2 | ||
| Lecture 4 (Mon 4/10): Bitwise Operators We'll see how to manipulate bits and bytes using bitwise operators. |
Lecture 4 Slides B&O Ch 2.1 |
In: assign0 Out: assign1 |
| Lecture 5 (Wed 4/12): More Bitwise Operators We'll learn about the << >> shift operators and how to use GDB to examine the execution of our programs. |
Lecture 5 Slides Lecture 5 Code |
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Lab 1: Bits and ints |
Be sure to check out our guide to gdb. | |
| Lecture 6 (Fri 4/14): Chars and C-Strings Topic 2: How can a computer represent and manipulate more complex data like text? We'll explore how strings and characters are manipulated in C using the char and char * types, discuss null termination, and become familiar with the string.h functions. |
Lecture 6 Slides Lecture 6 Code K&R (1.9, 5.5, Appendix B3) or Essential C section 3 for C-strings and string.h library functions. C-strings are primitive compared to Java/C++ strings, so take note of the manual efforts required for correct use and pitfalls to avoid. |
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| Week 3 | ||
| Lecture 7 (Mon 4/17): C-Strings, Buffer Overflows and Security We'll learn more about string library functions, and discuss buffer overflows and techniques to avoid them. |
Lecture 7 Slides Lecture 7 Code |
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| Lecture 8 (Wed 4/19): C-Strings, Valgrind and Pointers We'll introduce the Valgrind memory analysis tool for spotting memory errors. Then we'll dig deeper into C strings and learn more about how C strings are examples of arrays and pointers. |
Lecture 8 Slides Lecture 8 Code K&R Ch 1.6, 5.5 or Essential C section 3 on the mechanics of pointers and arrays. Pay special attention to the relationship between arrays and pointers and how pointers/arrays are passed as parameters. |
In: assign1 Out: assign2 |
| Lab 2: C-Strings | Be sure to check out our guide to Valgrind. | |
| Lecture 9 (Fri 4/21): Arrays and Pointers Topic 3: How can we effectively manage all types of memory in our programs? We'll answer questions like: how are arrays and pointers the same? How are they different? How is an array/pointer passed/returned in a function call? After this lecture, you'll understand how arrays and pointers allow two syntaxes for accessing sequential memory locations, but the underlying reality of the memory is the same. |
Lecture 9 Slides Lecture 9 Code K&R 5.2-5.5 or Essential C section 6 on advanced pointers |
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| Week 4 | ||
| Lecture 10 (Mon 4/24): Stack and Heap We'll introduce dynamic allocation on the heap with malloc and free, compare the stack and the heap, and get practice using dynamic allocation. |
Lecture 10 Slides K&R 5.6-5.9 or Essential C section 6 on the heap. The key concept is comparing and contrasting stack and heap allocation. |
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| Lecture 11 (Wed 4/26): Stack and Heap, Continued We'll continue discussing heap allocation, learn how to free memory, and talk about use-after-free vulnerabilities and disclosure processes. |
Lecture 11 Slides Lecture 11 Code |
In: assign2 Out: assign3 |
| Lab 3: Arrays/Pointers | ||
Lecture 12 (Fri 4/28): Partiality, Generics and void * Topic 4: How can we use our knowledge of memory and data representation to write code that works with any data type? We'll introduce untyped void * pointers and motivate C generics. We'll also discuss vulnerability disclosure and partiality. |
Lecture 12 Slides Lecture 12 Code |
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| Week 5 | ||
| Lecture 13 (Mon 5/1): Function Pointers We'll introduce function pointers, which allow us to pass functions as parameters and store them in variables. |
Lecture 13 Slides Lecture 13 Code K&R 5.11, review man pages or your C reference to be introduced to generic functions in the C library ( qsort, lfind, bsearch) |
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| Lecture 14 (Wed 5/3): Function Pointers, Continued We'll continue discussing generic function pointers and do examples of how to write and call functions with function parameters. We'll then introduce assembly/machine language and find out what's happening underneath the hood of the C compiler. |
Lecture 14 Slides Lecture 14 Code |
In: assign3 Out: assign4 |
Lab 4: void */Function Pointers |
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| Lecture 15 (Fri 5/5): Intro to x86-64, Data Movement Topic 5: How does a computer interpret and execute C programs? We'll introduce assembly/machine language and find out what's happening underneath the hood of the C compiler, including a discussion of the x86-64 instruction set architecture and its powerful mov instruction, along with addressing modes, data layout, and access to variables of various types. |
Lecture 15 Slides Lecture 15 Code B&O 3.1-3.3 for background info on x86-64 assembly. Very carefully read B&O 3.4 on addressing modes and data transfer. The multitude of addressing modes is one of the things that puts the first "C" in CISC. Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
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| Week 6 | ||
| Lecture 16 (Mon 5/8): x86-64 ALU We'll talk about arithmetic and logical instructions. |
Lecture 16 Slides B&O 3.5-3.6 Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
(Tues) Midterm Exam |
| Lecture 17 (Wed 5/10): More x86-64 ALU We'll continue talking about arithmetic and logical instructions and do practice reverse engineering examples. |
Lecture 17 Slides Lecture 17 Code B&O 3.5-3.6 Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
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| Lab 5: Assembly x86-64 in all its glory |
Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. | |
| Lecture 18 (Fri 5/12): x86-64 Condition Codes and Control Flow We'll see how to implement C if/else and loops in assembly. |
Lecture 18 Slides B&O 3.6 Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
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| Week 7 | ||
| Lecture 19 (Mon 5/15): x86-64 Control Flow, Continued We'll continue exploring loops and conditions in assembly and discuss other uses of condition codes ( setx/cmov). |
Lecture 19 Slides Lecture 19 Code B&O 3.7, 5.1-5.6 Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
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| Lecture 20 (Wed 5/17): x86-64 Runtime Stack We'll talk about procedures and the runtime stack along with instructions for call/return, parameter passing, local stack storage, and register use. |
Lecture 20 Slides Lecture 20 Code |
In: assign4 Out: assign5 |
| Lab 6: Runtime Stack Fun explorations with the stack! |
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| Lecture 21 (Fri 5/19): Reverse Engineering We'll discuss assign5's focus on reverse engineering executables. We'll do lots of reverse engineering practice to get you up to speed on assign5! |
Lecture 21 Slides Lecture 21 Code Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
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| Week 8 | ||
| Lecture 22 (Mon 5/22): Privacy, Trust and Managing the Heap Topic 6: How do core memory-allocation operations like malloc and free work? We'll have larger discussions of privacy and trust, and then move on to our final main topic. We'll see how the heap fits into the address space and introduce design decisions for implementing malloc/realloc/free, as well as performance tradeoffs (throughput, utilization). |
Lecture 22 Slides B&O Ch. 9.9 and 9.11 cover heap allocation implementation and memory misuses. There's lots of very useful detail in 9.9 for your heap allocator! |
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| Lecture 23 (Wed 5/24): Managing the Heap, Continued We'll learn about 3 different heap allocator designs: the bump allocator, the implicit free list allocator, and the explicit free list allocator, and compare them and discuss performance tradeoffs (throughput, utilization). |
Lecture 23 Slides Optimally skim B&O Ch. 5 |
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| No labs this week. | ||
| Lecture 24 (Fri 5/26): Explicit Free List Allocator We'll learn more about the explicit free llist allocator design, and other techniques employed by allocators including coalescing and in-place realloc. We'll also talk more about the requirements for assign6. |
Lecture 24 Slides | In (Sat): assign5 Out (Fri): assign6 |
| Week 9 | ||
| Mon 5/29 - No Lecture - MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY | ||
| Lecture 25 (Wed 5/31): Optimization We'll explore the compilation process and the various optimizations GCC does on our behalf. We'll also learn of some tools we can use to profile our own code so we know where to optimize ourselves. This could be helpful for final tuning of your heap allocator! |
Lecture 25 Slides Lecture 25 Code |
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| Lab 7: Code and Memory Optimization Experiments in optimization and profiling |
Be sure to check out our CS107 guide to callgrind. | |
| Fri 6/2 - No Lecture | In: assign6 checkpoint | |
| Week 10 | ||
| Lecture 26 (Mon 6/5): Wrap-up and Q&A We'll wrap up the course themes, preview courses and opportunities post-107, and say some final words. Bring questions if you have them! |
Lecture 26 Slides Lecture 26 Code CS107 Recap Page |
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| Wed 6/7 - No Lecture | In (Wed): assign6 | |
| No labs this week. | ||
| Final Exam Week | ||
| Final Exam: Monday June 12 3:30PM-6:30PM |