6.826: Principles of Computer Systems

6.826 provides an introduction to the basic principles of computer systems with emphasis on the use of rigorous techniques as an aid to understanding and building modern computing systems. Particular attention is paid to concurrent and distributed systems. Topics include specification and verification, concurrent algorithms, synchronization mechanisms, naming, communication protocols, replication techniques (including distributed cache management), and principles and algorithms for achieving reliability.

Profs. Lampson and Rinard will arrange individual appointments. Mandana Vaziri will hold scheduled office hours outside of NE43-365. In addition to holding regularly scheduled office hours, the TA will also be available by appointment.

Lectures are held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:30PM in room 37-212. Profs. Lampson and Rinard will split the lectures.

The source material for this course will be an extensive set of handouts. There are about 300 pages of topic handouts that take the place of a textbook; you will need to study this material to do well in the course. Seven research papers supplement the topic handouts. In addition there are 5 problem sets and a project. Solutions for each problem set will be available shortly after the due date.

• 6.826 - 1999 handouts for download
  • Postscript format
  • html format
  • Acrobat (pdf) format
• 6.826 - 1997 handouts for download
  • Postscript format
  • html format
  • Acrobat (pdf) format

Two mailing lists exist for the course: 6826@theory.lcs.mit.edu is for announcements from the staff to all students. 6826-disc@theory.lcs.mit.edu is a forum for discussion among 6.826 students.