M.I.T. DEPARTMENT OF EECS

6.033 - Computer System Engineering Handout 8 - February 25, 2003

Assignment 4: February 27 through March 7

For Recitation: Thursday, February 27

Do hands-on assignment 3 on caching. There is no new reading assignment for today. Recitation will be devoted to catching up on unfinished discussion of the previous two papers, on UNIX and Flash.

For Lecture: Monday, March 3

This lecture is the first lecture covering networking. Read Chapter 4, section A of the 6.033 class notes. To distribute the reading load more evenly you may want to read section B as well.

For Recitation: Tuesday, March 4

For recitation and your one-pager, read Metcalfe and Boggs's paper, "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks" (Reading #8). You should address the following question in your one-pager:
As described in the original paper, the first Ethernet had a bus topology. However, modern Ethernet installations typically use a star topology, in which every host is connected directly to a central, controlling "switch" or "hub"; this device is similar to the "repeater" shown in the paper's Figure 1. These two topologies differ not only in performance factors, but also in component and system complexity, administrative features, ease of maintenance, and reliability factors (failure modes). In your judgement, what was the primary force that drove the shift from a bus topology to a star topology, and what is the primary benefit of the latter?
The paper can be found in your reading packet, and is also available online.

For Lecture: Wednesday, March 5

Read Chapter 4, sections B, C, and D of the 6.033 class notes.

Review session for the first quiz will be from 7-9pm. Room E25-111.

For Recitation: Thursday, March 6

Design Project 1 is assigned today. Look for the Design Project on the web.
No Reading or Hands-on assignments today. Study for Quiz 1.

Design Project 1 is due in two weeks: Thursday, March 20.

For Quiz 1: Friday, March 7

Quiz 1 will be held from 2-3pm on Friday, March 7, 2003. The quiz will cover all the material up to and including the March 4th recitation (R8). The quiz will be open book. That means you can bring along any printed or written materials that you think might be useful. Calculators are allowed, though not necessary. 6.033 quizzes typically begin with half a dozen independent questions that focus on material in the readings followed by one or two longer, multi-part questions that deal with concepts of computer systems covered in lecture. The quiz will be, at least in part, multiple choice. The quiz will be held concurrently in two different rooms: 34-101 and 50-340. See the chart below to determine which location you should go to for the quiz.

Last NameLocation
A-L50-340 (Walker Memorial)
M-Z34-101

You can find old quiz questions to practice on in the Problems and Solutions section following chapter 9 of the class notes. Be sure to check out both the independent problems and the problem sets that pertain to the current topics. Note that each problem in that section is followed by a code that tells what year it was given and which quiz it appeared on. Although there has been a little rearrangement of material over the years, you should be able to answer most questions that came from an old quiz 1.

There will be a quiz review from 7-9pm, Wednesday, March 5th in room E25-111. During this time we will go over an outline of the covered subjects and explain a few questions from the Problems and Solutions section of the class notes.

The quiz is being held in a regularly scheduled class hour. The date was announced at the beginning of the term, so you should not have problems with scheduling conflicts. If, nevertheless, you have managed to create a conflict, contact Prof. Kaashoek at kaashoek@mit.edu as soon as possible to resolve the problem (please cc: the head TA, Frank Dabek, at fdabek@mit.edu with conflicts).

System aphorism of the week

"A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works" (J. Gall, Systemantics).
Go to 6.033 Home Page Questions or Comments: 6.033-tas@mit.edu