Operating Systems Design & Implementation (CS 461)
Welcome to UIC CS 461 — Spring 2026. We'll design, break, and rebuild pieces of an operating system together using the xv6 kernel. Expect short weekly milestones, in-class demos, and plenty of time in coding and debugging.
Quick facts
When & Where
Tue/Thu · 2:00–3:15 PM
CDRLC, room 2406
Instructor
Prof. Xiaoguang Wang
Office hours: Thu 3:30–4:30 PM (Zoom or in-person)
Teaching Assistant
Chalmers Phua
Office hours: Wednesday 2:00–3:30 PM, CDRLC 2404
What you’ll learn
- Build intuition for processes, threads, scheduling, and kernel synchronization
- Trace how system calls cross the user/kernel boundary
- Implement and test virtual memory and file system components
- Practice debugging real kernel code and explaining design trade-offs