CS 471 OPERATING SYSTEMS - Fall 2007

CS 471 Operating Systems – Fall 2008

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth White

Description: This course covers the principles of operating systems theory and practice. Fundamental concepts such as processes, synchronization, scheduling and memory management will be presented. Another emphasis will be on the principles of distributed operating systems.

Prerequisites: CS 310 and CS 367, or equivalent. A solid background in These pre-requisites imply a solid background, both in programming and in computer architecture. In order to be able to work on the programming projects, the students must be very comfortable with C/C++ or Java programming languages.

Meeting Times and Locations:

Section 001: Monday and Wednesday 3.00 - 4.15 PM Innovation hall Room 136

Readings:
Required Textbook: "Operating System Concepts", by Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne (7th Edition, John Wiley & Sons 2005, ISBN 0-471-69466-5).

Other good references: "Modern Operating Systems" (2nd edition, Prentice Hall 2001, ISBN: 0-13-031358-0), by A. S. Tanenbaum
Distributed Systems: Concept and Design" (4th Edition, Addison-Wesley 2005, ISBN 0321263545), by Coulouris, Dollimore and Kindberg.

Office Hours: TBD (Office: ST II, Room 429)

Teaching Assistant (TA):

TA Office Hours:

Course Web Page: http://cs.gmu.edu/~white/CS471

Course Outcomes: At the end of this course, you will

Demonstrate knowledge about the role and purpose of the operating systems
Be able to explain the features of operating systems found in different types of computer systems (e.g. mainframe systems, personal computers, multiprocessor systems, handheld systems)
Demonstrate basic knowledge about the evolution of operating system concepts from early batch systems to today’s sophisticated multiuser/multiprocessor systems.
Demonstrate knowledge about different approaches to operating system design and the involved trade-offs
Be able to explain the main performance evaluation criteria for computer systems and how the operating system design can have an impact on these.
Show an understanding of the need for, and the potential run-time problems arising from, the concurrent operation of multiple tasks (processes/threads).
Be able to solve the basic process synchronization problems, by also making use of basic data structures and programming techniques covered in previous courses.
Demonstrate the knowledge about process scheduling, basic memory management and file system management techniques and their impact on the overall performance.
Demonstrate the basic knowledge about distributed systems and how the everincreasing networking features have affected (and are affecting) operating system design.
Be able to identify potential threats to operating systems and the security features designed to guard against them.
Be able to implement (in a high-level programming language such as C or Java) a simulator for a suit of basic algorithms proposed for the main OS services such as memory management and process scheduling.
Be able to implement a simple client/server application using system calls and distributed programming.

Grading:

Exams (2) 30%
Final 30%
Programming Projects 30%
Homeworks 10%

No early exams will be given and make-up exams are strongly discouraged.
GMU Honor Code will be enforced. The students are supposed to work individually on the assignments/projects. Collaboration will be allowed only for the group projects, within each group. We reserve the right to use MOSS to detect plagiarism. Violations of GMU Honor Code or a total score of 49 (or less) will result in an F.

Computer Accounts: All students should have accounts on the central Mason Unix system mason.gmu.edu (also known as osf1.gmu.edu) and on IT&E Unix cluster zeus.ite.gmu.edu (Instructions and related links are here). Students can work in IT&E computer labs for programming projects during the specified hours.

Students with Disabilities: If you have a documented learning disability or other condition that may affect academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with the Office of Disability Services (SUB I, Rm. 222; 993-2474; www.gmu.edu/student/drc) to determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me to discuss your accommodation needs.