Vassar College, Fall 2009

Syllabus

Course Wiki:	http://www.cs.vassar.edu/courses/cs334-200903/top
Professor:	Barry Jones
Office:	OLB 118
Office Hours:	Tues 1:00-2:30; Wed 2:00-3:30 (and by appointment)
Phone:	437 5986
Email:	jones@cs.vassar.edu
Class Meeting Time:	Mon/Wed: 12:00-1:15 (OLB-105)

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Texts and References:

Required Text: Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne, Operating Systems Concepts 8th Edition, Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-12872-5

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Description

This course is a comprehensive treatment of the basic problems encountered in operating systems and a study of known solutions to those problems. General areas of study include management of the processor, storage and I/O resources, parallelism and operating system structure.

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Objectives

At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:

* Recognize those operating system problems which have been identified and studied
* Use accepted operating system terminology
* Classify specific features of an existing operating system by general design concept

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Topics:

* Review of basic computer architecture
* Evolution of operating systems
* Concurrent processes
* Interprocess communication
* Processor allocation
* Deadlocks
* Memory management
* Virtual memory
* Virtual machines
* Disk scheduling
* File systems
* Protection and security
* Distributed systems
* Advanced topics

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Prerequisite:

Computer Organization (CMPU 224) or permission of the instructor

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Assignment Submission:

Students should submit completed homework or laboratory programs electronically using the class dropbox.

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Deadlines and Lateness:

All assignments are due at the start of class on the specified due dates. Late work will be accepted, with a 10% penalty, and only up until the start of the next class. Students’ programs will be graded on functionality, style and documentation.

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Grading Policy:

Assignments, Midterm, Project, and Final are each 25% of the final grade.

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Classroom Etiquette:

Students are expected to attend all lectures, with exceptions permitted in case of illness and family emergencies. Lectures will begin on time. Students are expected to arrive on time. Students’ cell phones should be turned off during lectures.

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Students with Disabilities:

Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered with the Office of Disability and Support Services. Students in need of disability accommodations should schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course which have been approved by the Office of Disability and Support Services, as indicated in your DSS accommodation letter.