Announcements:

Dec 21: Here is the grade histogram and solution set for Quiz 2.

Dec 6: The HKN Underground Guide survey for 6.824 is now live. Please fill it out when you have a moment.

Dec 3: You can now sign your project team up for a demo meeting with the TA for Thursday December 6 or Friday December 7.

Nov 21: We have posted the instructions for the project, Lab 9. The names of your team members and a few sentences describing your project are due by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, November 27. The project writeup is due by 5:00 pm on Thursday, December 6, and each team will meet with the TA to discuss their projects on December 6 or December 7.

Nov 8: We have posted the instructions for Lab 8. It is due by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, November 21.

Oct 31: Here is the grade histogram and solution set for Quiz 1.

Oct 27: We have posted the instructions for Lab 7. It is due by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, November 7. We have moved the due date up two days from the previous version of the schedule, to give you more time for Lab 8.

Oct 27: Here are some past quizzes, for your studying enjoyment. We have our first quiz this Tuesday, October 30.

Oct 23: We switched the material for lectures 13 and 14 on the schedule.

Oct 19: We have posted the instructions for Lab 6. It is due by 5:00 pm on Friday, October 26.

Oct 5: We have posted the instructions for Lab 5. It is due by 5:00 pm on Friday, October 19.

Sep 27: We have posted the instructions for Lab 4. It is due by 5:00 pm on Friday, October 5th.

Sep 20: We have created a Linux+FUSE VMWare image for your convenience. See the Lab Overview page for details.

Sep 20: We have posted the instructions for Lab 3. It is due by 5:00 pm on Friday, September 28th.

Sep 13: We have posted the instructions for Lab 2. It is due by 5:00 pm on Friday, September 21st. Make sure to check out the Lab Overview for information about how to set up your programming environment for FUSE.

Sep 11: If you have questions about the lab or about lecture, please note that Jeremy's office hours begin tomorrow, Wednesday September 12, and go from 4-5 pm in the 32-G9 lounge. If you can't make that due to schedule conflicts, feel free to email Jeremy and arrange for a session by appointment.

Sep 10: We have posted the questions for this week's lectures on the questions page. Questions are also linked from the schedule page.

Sep 6: We just sent an email to the class announcement mailing list. If you did not receive this email but are going to take the class, you should notify 6.824-staff@pdos.csail.mit.edu and we will add you to the list. There is also a discussion list for use by the students to discuss common questions and concerns about the class. The announce list is "6.824-announce" and the discuss list is "6.824-discuss", both at the domain pdos.csail.mit.edu.

Sep 6: We will be posting lecture notes after each class, sometime after the lecture is done. They will be linked from the schedule. Lecture 1 notes are already up.

Sep 5: We have posted the instructions for Lab 1. It is due by 5:00 pm on Friday, September 14th.

Aug 28: We are introducing a brand new set of lab programming assignments this year, based on pthreads and the FUSE file system interface.

Aug 28: 6.824 is being offered Fall 2007. Lectures will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am-12:30pm in 32-144.

What is 6.824 about?

6.824 is a core 12-unit graduate subject with lectures, programming labs, quizzes, and a small project extending the labs. It will present abstractions and implementation techniques for engineering distributed systems. Topics include multithreading, remote procedure call, client/server designs, peer-to-peer designs, consistency, fault tolerance, and security, as well as several case studies of distributed systems.

Prerequisites: 6.004 and one of 6.033 or 6.828, or equivalent. Substantial programming experience with C/C++ will be helpful for the lab assignments and final project.

If you feel you know enough about systems engineering, an alternative subject to 6.824 is 6.829. 6.829 focuses on the engineering of networks. If you are a graduate student in systems or networking, we recommend you take both classes during your graduate career. 6.829 is offered in the spring.

If you want to learn more about operating systems in particular, you should consider 6.828.