CS 471 Planned Schedule, Spring 2026

The Course Syllabus is available: https://people.cs.gmu.edu/~kandrea/courses/S26/CS471_Syllabus_S26.html

All projects will be posted and announced as early as we have them prepared, generally with at least two weeks to complete.
These dates are subject to change as needed during the semester.

• PA 0: Tuesday, Jan 27 - Monday, Feb 9 (11:59pm deadline)
  
  
• PA 1 - Part 1 [Tentative]: Tuesday, Feb 24 - Friday, Mar 6 (11:59pm deadline)
  
• PA 1 - Part 2 [Tentative]: Tuesday, Feb 24 - Friday, Mar 27 (11:59pm deadline)
  


• PA 2 - Part 1 [Tentative]: Wednesday, April 1 - Friday, April 10 (11:59pm deadline)
  
• PA 2 - Part 2 [Tentative]: Wednesday, April 1 - Friday, May 1 (11:59pm deadline)
  
  
• All submissions will occur on Gradescope
• There are no late days allowed after 11:59pm on May 4th.

Tests are bigger milestones, and their dates are announced ahead of time.
Only severe scheduling anomalies would force a delay in test dates.

• Mid-Term Exams:
  
• Test 1: Thursday, March 5th
  
• Covers Modules 1 - 4
• OS Structures and Interrupt Handling
• Processes, Signals, and IPC
• Threads and Synchronization
• Test 2: Thursday, April 16th
  
• Covers Modules 5 - 6
• CPU Scheduling
• Memory Management
• More information will be provided as the date closes in.
• The exams will given in-person during your normal class session.
• Final Exam:
  • The Final Exam is Comprehensive
  • Section 009 with Prof. Andrea
  • Tuesday, May 12th from 10:30am - 1:15pm
  • Source
  • The Final will be taken during these University Scheduled Times in your normal classroom.

• Homeworks:
  • Each Homework Releases on the day a Module Finishes and is due by 11:59pm on the specified day.
  • These roughly week-long homework assignments will be done on Gradescope.
  • There are no makeups for a missed or late homework assignments.
  
  
• Tentative Homework Schedules:
  • Homework 1: Module 2 (OS Structures)
  • Tues, Jan 27 - Wed, Feb 4 by 11:59pm
  • Homework 2: Module 3 (Processes)
  • Thurs, Feb 5 - Fri, Feb 13 by 11:59pm
  • Homework 3: Module 4 (Synchronization)
  • Thur, Feb 19 - Fri, Feb 27 by 11:59pm
  • Homework 4: Module 5 (Scheduling)
  • Tues, Mar 17 - Fri, Mar 27 by 11:59pm
  • Homework 5: Module 6 (Memory Management)
  • Tues, Mar 31 - Fri, Apr 10 by 11:59pm
  • Homework 6: Module 7 (Virtual Memory)
  • Tues, Apr 14 - Fri, Apr 24 by 11:59pm
  • Homework 7: Modules 8-9 (File Systems and Security)
  • Mon, Apr 27 - Mon, May 4 by 11:59pm

Below is a tentative schedule, which is subject to change as needed.

• This is the Planned Schedule of Topics.  Individual lectures may vary, but this this the plan.
• This means that the topics below are general indications of when they will be instructed.
  • Each lecture section may vary in timing on individual topics.
  • Due to the Holidays, some classes may be out of sync by one lecture for some of the semester.
• Holidays:
• March 9 - March 13: Spring Break

Week	Lecture Topics	Text
January 19th, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Monday Holiday. (Tuesday - Friday Normal Classes)
1 Jan 20 - 23	Module 1: Course Intro/Demos Module 2: OS Structures	Ch. 1 - 2 (Overview)
2 Jan 26 - 30	Syscalls and Interrupts Module 3: Processes	Ch. 1 - 2 (Overview) Ch. 4 - 6 (Processes)
3 Feb 2 - 6	Processes Operations Process Communications	Ch. 4 - 6 (Processes)
4 Feb 9 - 13	Module 4: Threads Race Conditions and Critical Section	Ch. 26 (Threads) Ch. 26 - 27 (Synchronization)
5 Feb 16 - 20	Locks and CVs Semaphores	Ch. 28 - 29 (Locks) Ch. 29 - 31 (Semaphores)
6 Feb 23 - 27	Monitors Module 5: Scheduling	Ch. D (Appendix - Monitors) Ch. 7 (Scheduling)
7 Mar 2 - 6	Non-Preemptive Scheduling (Thu.) MIDTERM - Test 1	Ch. 7 (Scheduling) Modules 1 - 4
8 Mar 9 - 13	No Classes on Spring Break
9 Mar 16 - 20	Preemptive Scheduling Real-Time Scheduling	Ch. 7 (Scheduling) Ch. 9-10 (Realtime)
10 Mar 23 - 27	Module 6: Memory Management Segmentation	Ch. 13-21 (Memory Management)
11 Mar 30 - Apr 3	Paging Module 7: Virtual Memory	Ch. 13 - 21 (Paging)
12 Apr 6 - 10	Effective Access times Page Replacement	Ch. 13 - 21 (Paging)
13 Apr 13 - 17	Working Sets (Thu.) MIDTERM - Test 2	Ch. 13-21 (Virtual Memory) Modules 5 - 6
14 Apr 20 - 24	Module 8: File Systems RAID and SSDs	Ch. 36-45 (File Systems)
15 Apr 27 - May 1	Module 9: Security Attack Vectors	Ch. 53-56 (Security)
Finals - See the Final Exam information at the top for Details