Lecture Week 2: The CPU: Limited Direct Execution, Protection Rings, and Interrupts

Second Course Meetup: Tuesday, Feb. 2

The second course meetup at on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 2:00pm on Zoom. We will use the same Zoom link for all course meetups (you can find it in Compass 2g as the announcement for this course).

Lecture Topics and Videos

There are six micro-lectures for this week, divided up by topic:

  1. Simulation vs Limited Direct Execution - MediaSpace Video
  2. Protection Levels / Protection Rings - MediaSpace Video
  3. Paths between User and Kernel Code - MediaSpace Video
  4. Process Control Block (PCB) - MediaSpace Video
  5. Interrupt Vector Table - MediaSpace Video
  6. Interrupt Handler Design - MediaSpace Video

Additionally, here’s a PDF of all the lecture slides presented in the videos this week.

Textbook Readings and Course Meetup Recording

You can dive into these topics further in the following textbook chapters:

MPs

  • We are currently in the second week of MP0 – make sure your VM is all set up before the Monday, Feb. 8 deadline.
  • MP1, your first kernel development, will be released next week! :)

Reading Selection from Systems Research (Required for 4CR only)

If you are enrolled in the 4CR version of this course, you will review two papers each week and choose one to summarize in depth. See the course syllabus for details.

  1. “The UNIX time-sharing system” by Dennis M. Ritchie and Ken Thompson; published in the Communications of the ACM (1974)
  2. “A study of modern Linux API usage and compatibility: what to support when you’re supporting” by Chia-Che Tsai, Bhushan Jain, Nafees Ahmed Abdul, and Donald Porter; published in the Communications of the ACM (2016)

Your review for the “Week 2 Reading” is due on Compass 2g by 11:59pm on Monday, Feb. 8.

Upcoming

  • MP1 is released next week!