SSDLab: Filling in the Missing Piece: Integrating Storage into CompOrg Courses

This repo contains source code template for SSDLab presented in the paper Filling in the Missing Piece: Integrating Storage into CompOrg Courses, published at ASEE 2025. Link to the paper will be updated after the paper is published.

For Instructors

Required Environments

System: Linux. Each student should be assigned to a folder under /home/.

Toolchain for the assignment: gcc, objcopy.

Handout: Any LaTeX compiler.

Deployment

The assignment WILL NOT run properly without running actions below before assignment deployment. Please read this section before deploying the assignment. Instructors should send an email to xzhang84[at]syr.edu for access to instructors-only files to properly deploy the assignment. Please send proofs to prove that you are an instructor (e.g., sending your public profile on your institution website with the email address shown on your profile) for access. We apologize for any inconvenience, but we require this because the instructor-only files contain sample answers.

Files for Students

Students should make changes to the following files:

• handlewrite.c: Students should make change to the handleWriteRequests function.
• gc.c: Students should make change to the gc function.
• findvictim.c: Students should make change to the findVictim function.

Students can use the autograder file (autograder.py) to grade their own assignments. Run autograder.py without any arguments for help.

All other files do not need to be changed by students or instructors.

• helper.c: Contains all helper functions. We strongly suggest students to read this file to learn how the helper functions are implemented. This file also helps students to learn C language syntax.
• autograder.py: Autograder for students.
• waf.c: Hooks on the students' implementation of the gc function to count the number of pages relocated in their garbage collection process.
• main.c: Trace driver. Reads in the trace and calls the handleWriteRequests for each write request in the trace.
• Makefile: Contains the instructions to make the assignment.

The following files will be generated by the instructors prior to the deployment and thus are not in this repo. See the instructor's README.md for more details.

• sample_findvictim.o: The object file containing a sample answer of findVictim function for student debug purposes. Students can make with this sample findVictim function using make withsamplefindvictim before implementing their own version or to debug with it.
• sample_gc.o: Similar to above, but for the gc function. Run make withsamplegc to compile with sample_gc.o.
  • To compile with both sample_findvictim.o and sample_gc.o, run make withsamplefindvictimandgc.
  • The autograder.py script also provides the feature to compile with these object files.
• ssdlab-ref: The compiled SSDLab binary with sample answers to the three functions students need to solve. This is used by the autograder as reference.

Acknowledgements

• The trace driver, main.c, is designed based on the structure of csim.c in CSAPP:3E. The handout is also based on CSAPP:3E assignment handout LaTeX template.
• The physical page address data structure, ppa, is based on the implementation of FEMU by Huaicheng Li.
• The traces under the ./traces folder are from the Systor 2017 paper Understanding Storage Traffic Characteristics on Enterprise Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. The traces are available at http://iotta.snia.org/traces/block-io/4928.