Operating System Engineering

Related Resources

The resources provided below are useful references for those interested in learning more about the topics covered in the course.

UNIX®

• Ritchie, Dennis M., and Ken L.Thompson. “The UNIX® Time-Sharing System.” Bell System Technical Journal 57, no. 6 part 2 (1974): 1905–30. You read this paper in 6.033.
• Ritchie, Dennis M. “The Evolution of the Unix® Time-sharing System.” 1984.
• Kernighan, Brian, and Dennis Ritchie. The C Programming Language. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 1988. ISBN: 9780131103627.

x86 Emulation

• QEMU—A fast and popular x86 platform and CPU emulator.
  • User Manual
• Bochs—A more mature, but quirkier and much slower x86 emulator. Bochs is generally a more faithful emulator of real hardware than QEMU.
  • User Manual
  • Debugger Reference

x86 Assembly Language

• PC Assembly Language, Paul A. Carter, July 2006.
• Intel® 80386 Programmer’s Reference Manual, 1987 (HTML®).  
  Much shorter than the full current Intel® Architecture manuals below, but describes all processor features used in 6.828.
• IA-32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer’s Manuals, Intel®, 2007. Download the following manuals:
  • Volume I: Basic Architecture
  • Volume 2A: Instruction Set Reference, A–M
  • Volume 2B: Instruction Set Reference, N–Z
  • Volume 3: System Programming Guide
• Multiprocessor References:
  • MP specification
  • IO APIC
• AMD64 Architecture Programmer’s Manual.  
  Covers both the “classic” 32-bit x86 architecture and the new 64-bit extensions supported by the latest AMD and Intel® processors.
• Writing Inline Assembly Language with GCC:
  • Brennan’s Guide to Inline Assembly, Brennan “Mr. Wacko” Underwood
  • Inline assembly for x86 in Linux®, Bharata B. Rao, IBM®
  • GCC-Inline-Assembly-HOWTO, Sandeep. S
• Loading x86 Executables in the ELF Format:
  • Tool Interface Standard (TIS) Executable and Linking Format (ELF).  
    The definitive standard for the ELF format.

PC Hardware Programming

• General PC Architecture Information:
  • Phil Storrs PC Hardware book, Phil Storrs, December 1998.
  • Bochs technical hardware specifications directory.
• General BIOS and PC Bootstrap:
  • BIOS Central
  • BIOS Services and Software Interrupts, Roger Morgan, 1997.
  • “El Torito” Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification, Phoenix / IBM®, January 1995.
• VGA Display - kern / console.c
  • VESA BIOS Extension (VBE) 3.0 (PDF), Video Electronics Standards Association, September 1998.
  • VGADOC, Finn Thøgersen, 2000.
  • Free VGA Project, J. D. Neal, 1998.
• Keyboard and Mouse - kern / console.c
  • Adam Chapweske’s Resources
• 8253/8254 Programmable Interval Timer (PIT) - inc / timerreg.h
  • 82C54 CHMOS Programmable Interval Timer, Intel®, October 1994.
  • Data Solutions 8253/8254 Tutorial, Data Solutions.
• 8259/8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) - kern / picirq.*
  • 8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller, Intel®, December 1988.
• Real-Time Clock (RTC) - kern / kclock.*
  • Phil Storrs PC Hardware book, Phil Storrs, December 1998. In particular:
    • Understanding the CMOS
    • A list of what is in the CMOS
  • CMOS Memory Map, Padgett Peterson, May 1996. (TXT)
  • M48T86 PC Real-Time Clock, ST Microelectronics, April 2004.
• 16550 UART Serial Port - kern / console.c
  • PC16550D Universal Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter with FIFOs, National Semiconductor, 1995.
  • Technical Data on 16550, Byterunner Technologies.
  • Interfacing the Serial / RS232 Port, Craig Peacock, August 2001.
• IEEE 1284 Parallel Port - kern / console.c
  • Parallel Port Central, Jan Axelson.
  • IEEE 1284 - Updating the PC Parallel Port, National Instruments.
  • Interfacing the Standard Parallel Port, Craig Peacock, August 2001.
• IDE Hard Drive Controller - fs / ide.c
  • AT Attachment with Packet Interface - 6 (working draft), ANSI, December 2001.
  • Programming Interface for Bus Master IDE Controller, Brad Hosler, Intel®, May 1994.
  • The Guide to ATA / ATAPI documentation, Constantine Sapuntzakis, January 2002.
• Sound Cards (not supported in 6.828 kernel, but you’re welcome to do it as a challenge problem!)
  • Signal Processing using Sound Cards
  • Sound Blaster Series Hardware Programming Guide (PDF), Creative Technology, 1996.
  • 8237A High Performance Programmable DMA Controller, Intel®, September 1993.
  • Sound Blaster 16 Programming Document, Ethan Brodsky, June 1997.
• E100 Network Interface Card
  • Intel 8255x 10 / 100 Mbps Ethernet Controller Family Open Source Software Developer Manual
  • 82559ER Fast Ethernet PCI Controller Datasheet
• E1000 Network Interface Card
  • PCI / PCI-X Family of Gigabit Ethernet Controllers Software Developer’s Manual