Winter 2015 SPO600 Weekly Schedule

Old Content
This content is being updated from the Fall 2014 to the Winter 2015 version of the course.

This is a draft only!
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on this information.

It's Alive!
This SPO600 weekly schedule will be updated as the course proceeds - dates and content are subject to change. The cells in the summary table will be linked to relevant resources and labs as the course progresses.

Summary Table

This is a summary/index table. Please follow the links in each cell for additional detail -- especially for the Deliverables column.

Week	Week of...	Tuesday	Thursday	Deliverables (Summary - click for details)
1	Jan 12	Introduction to Software Porting, Portability, Benchmarking, and Optimization / How is code accepted into an open source project? (Lab 1)	Computer Architecture Overview	Set up accounts, and blog a comparision of code reviews in two communities (Lab 1).
2	Jan 19	Compiled C Lab (Lab 2)	Prepare a presentation on a selected aspect of assembly language	Blog a commentary on the Compiled C Lab (Lab 2), and be prepared to give your presentation.
3	Jan 26	Assembly language presentations	Assembly language presentations	Blog about your assembly language presentation.
4	Feb 2	Assembly lab (Lab 3)	Inline assembler / Potential project triage - Scan the potential project list to find out about the packages	Blog post about the assembly lab (Lab 3) and what you found in the potential projects.
5	Feb 9	Linaro Connect - No classes scheduled Prepare a presentation on a selected topic about platform-specific code.		Be prepared to present your topic.
6	Feb 16	Presentations on platform-specific code.	Presentations on platform-specific code.	Blog about your presentation.
7	Feb 23	Working with the code / Find the platform-specific code in 3 packages (Lab 4).	Group hack session - Picking your packages.	Blog about the platform-specific code in 3 packages (Lab 4) and the packages you selected.
Study Week	Mar 2	Study Week - No classes!
8	Mar 9	Project Presentations - Stage 1	Benchmarking and profiling	Blog about your project plans - this will be used to assign your 1st Project Marks.
9	Mar 16	Group hack - Baseline builds and benchmarking	Compiler Optimizations	Blog about your baseline data.
10	Mar 23	Optimization Lab	Group Hack - Profiling: Finding the Pain Points	Blog about the pain points in your software.
11	Mar 30	Project Presentations - Stage 2	Group Hack - Optimization	Blog about your project progress - this will be used to assign your 2nd Project Marks.
12	Apr 6	Upstreaming	Discussion & Hack Session	Blog about your progress.
13	Apr 13	Discussion and hack session	Wrap-up Session	Upstream your work and blog about it
Exam Week	Apr 20	Exam Week - No exam in this course!

Evaluation

Category	Percentage	Evaluation Dates
Communication	20%	January 31, February 28, March 27, April 22
Quizzes	10%	May be held during any class, usually at the start of class. A minimum of 5 one-page quizzes will be given. No make-up/retake option is offered if you miss a quiz. Lowest 3 scores will not be counted.
Labs	10%	See deliverables column above.
Project work	60%	March 13 (15%), April 3 (20%), April 22 (25%)

Week 1

Tuesday (Jan 13)

Introduction to the Problem

• Most software is written in a high-level language which can be compiled into machine code for a specific architecture. However, there is a lot of existing code that contains some architecture-specific code fragments written in Assembly Language (or, in some cases, machine-specific high-level code).
• Reasons for writing code in Assembly Langauge include:
  • Performance
  • Atomic Operations
  • Direct access to hardware features, e.g., CPUID registers
• Most of the historical reasons for including assembler are no longer valid. Modern compilers can out-perform most hand-optimized assembly code, atomic operations can be handled by libraries or compiler intrinsics, and most hardware access should be performed through the operating system or appropriate libraries.
• A new architecture has appeared: Aarch64, which is part of ARMv8. This is the first new computer architecture to appear in several years (at least, the first mainstream computer architecture).
• There are over 1400 software packages/modules present in GNU Linux systems which contain architecture-specific assembly language code or have other portability issues. Most of these packages cannot be built on Aarch64 systems without modification.

Course Projects

In this course, you will:

1. Select two software packages from a list compiled by Steve Macintyre of Linaro. Each of the packages on this list contains assembly language code which is platform-specific.
2. Prepare a fix/patch for the software so that it will run on 64-bit ARM systems (aarch64). This may be done at either of two levels:
   1. Port - Add additional assembly language code for aarch64 (basic solution).
   2. Make Portable - Remove architecture-specific code, replacing it with compiler intrinsics or high-level code so that the software will successfully build on multiple platforms.
3. Benchmark - Prove that your changes do not cause a performance regression on existing platforms, and that (ideally) it improves performance.
4. Upstream your Code - Submitting your code to the upstream (originating) software project so that it can be incorporated into future versions of the software. This will involve going through a code review to ensure that your code is compatible with and acceptable to the upstream community.

General Course Information

• Course resources are linked from the CDOT wiki, starting at http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/SPO600 (Quick find: This page will usually be Google's top result for a search on "SPO600").
• Coursework is submitted by blogging.
• Quizzes will be short (1 page) and will be held without announcement at any time. Your lowest three quiz scores will not be counted, so do not worry if you miss one or two.
• Course marks (see Weekly Schedule for dates):
  • 60% - Project Deliverables
  • 20% - Communication (Blog and Wiki writing)
  • 20% - Labs and Quizzes (10% labs - completed/not completed; 10% for quizzes - lowest 3 scores not counted)
• All classes will be held in an Active Learning Classroom -- you are encouraged to bring your own laptop to class. If you do not have a laptop, consider signing one out of the Learning Commons for class, or using a smartphone with an HDMI adapter.
• For more course information, refer to the SPO600 Weekly Schedule (this page), the Course Outline, and SPO600 Course Policies.

Discussion of how open source communities work

• Background for the [[SPO600 Code Review Lab|Code Review Lab (Lab 1).

Thursday (Jan 15)

• Computer Architecture overview (see also the Computer Architecture Category)

Week 1 Deliverables

1. Set up your SPO600 Communication Tools - in particular, set up a blog and add it to Planet CDOT (via the Planet CDOT Feed List).
2. Add yourself to the Fall 2014 SPO600 Participants page (leave the projects columns blank).
3. Generate a pair of keys for SSH and email the public key to your professor.
4. Sign and return the Open Source Professional Option Student Agreement.
5. Set up a Fedora 20 system.

Week 2

Tuesday (Jan 20)

Bring Your Laptop
Classes are held in a Active Learning Classroom. If you have a laptop or other device with a VGA or HDMI output (such as a smartphone!) please bring it. You'll need either a local linux environment or an SSH client -- which is built-in to Linux, Mac, and Chromebook systems, and readily available for Windows, Android, and iOS devices.

• Perform the Compiled C Lab (Lab 2) in groups.

Thursday (Jan 22)

• Select and prepare to teach the class about a specific small topic related to assembly language / machine language programming.

Week 2 Deliverables

• Complete and blog your conclusion to the Code Review Lab (Lab 1).
• Blog your conclusion to the Compiled C Lab (Lab 2).
• Be prepared to give your presentation on Tuesday of next week.