Note: The following provides a suggested course description,
objectives, and an outline. These may be modified pending discussion with
the Faculty Chairs, proposing faculty, and other curriculum
reviewers.
Course Description: This course examines the important
problems in operating system design and implementation. The operating
system provides a well-known, convenient, and efficient interface between
user programs and the bare hardware of the computer on which they run. The
operating system is responsible for sharing resources (e.g., disks,
networks, and processors), providing common services needed by many
different programs (e.g., file service, the ability to start or stop
processes, and access to the printer), and protecting individual programs
from one another. The course will start with a brief historical
perspective of the evolution of operating systems over the last fifty
years, and then cover the major components of most operating systems. This
discussion will cover the tradeoffs that can be made between performance
and functionality during the design and implementation of an operating
system. Particular emphasis will be given to three major OS subsystems:
process management (processes, threads, CPU scheduling, synchronization,
and deadlock), memory management (segmentation, paging, swapping), file
systems, and operating system support for distributed systems.
Course Objectives: A first course in operating systems
(OS) to teach students about the interface between user programs and
computer hardware.
Course Outline by Topical Areas:
- Historical perspective
- Major components of most operating systems
- Process management
- Synchronization in concurrent processes
- Memory management
- File systems, I/O, and secondary storage
- Operating system support for distributed systems
