Syllabus

Description
Storage systems are one of the fastest growing and most interesting research areas in computer science.  Understanding and ultimately building storage systems bridges many systems research areas including operating systems, networking, performance analysis, and hardware design.  Storage systems often dominate the overall performance of computer systems; understanding their architecture and how it impacts the rest of the system is at the core of this course.

The course covers the design and implementation of storage systems and the architecture and characteristics of the components from which they are built. The topics range from device level details to distributed storage systems. This includes the inner workings of modern disk drives, file systems, RAID data protection schemes, disk array controllers, storage area networks and performance evaluation of storage systems at all levels.  This course looks at a handful of real-world systems and uses them as case studies to demonstrate the inter-disciplinary nature of this topic.

Prerequisites
A solid understanding of Operating Systems concepts: CSG 112, or equivalent.

Expectations
This course is designed for highly motivated students. Students should expect for the material to be unpolished and evolving through out the term. In return, the instructors promise to work hard to make this as fun and academically enriching experience as possible.

To get the most out of the lectures and to effectively participate in the class discussions, all materials assigned for a given lecture must be read beforehand.

Text and Other Course Materials
There is no single textbook for this course. Handouts, book chapters, articles, and URLs will supplement course material. These will be made available online when possible and will be posted on the couse website.

The following related texts are on reserve at the Northeastern Snell library:

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Third Edition. John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson.  Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. May 2002.1100 pages. ISBN 1-55860-596-7.

UNIX Internals: The New Frontiers. Uresh Vahalia, EMC Corporation. ISBN: 0-13-101908-2. Prentice Hall. 1996.

The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System. Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, and John S. Quarterman. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0201549794.

iSCSI: The Universal Storage Connection. John. Hufferd). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 020178419X.

Grading
Grades will be determined based on the following criteria.

Midterm examination: 20%
Final Examination: 30%
Class Participation: 20%
Homeworks & Projects: 30% 

Additionally, all assignments must be completed successfully to fulfill course requirements.

Homework and Projects
Homeworks will be written assignments that take one week to complete.

Projects involve implementation and a written report.  Two or three projects will be assigned throughout the semester.  Each should take two weeks to complete.

Academic Conduct
Unless otherwise indicated, students may only discuss concepts for the homework with each other. Submissions should represent the student's individual effort.