DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
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 (Data Structures), CS 367 (Computer Systems and
Programming), and CS 465 (Computer Architecture), or equivalent. A solid
background in Computer Architecture (including Assembly Language) is required.
In addition, the students should be fluent in all aspects of the C programming
language in order to complete the course work, which includes substantial
programming projects.
Meeting Time and
Location: Wednesday 4:30 – 7:10 PM, Innovation Hall Room 206.
Required Textbook: "Operating System Concepts", by Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne (9th Edition, John Wiley
& Sons 2012, ISBN 978-1-118-06333-0).
"Modern Operating Systems" (3rd edition, Prentice Hall 2008, ISBN:
0-13-600663-9) by A. S. Tanenbaum is another good book
on the principles of operating systems.
As additional reference on distributed systems, the following book can be
recommended: "Distributed Systems: Concept and Design" (5th Edition,
Addison-Wesley 2012, ISBN 978013214301-1), by Coulouris,
Dollimore and Kindberg.
Office Hours: Monday, 3:00
– 4:00 PM; Wednesday 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM; and by appointment
(Office:
Topics:
Tentative Exam Dates:
Course Home Page: Throughout the term, the course material (lecture slides, assignments, and announcements) will be posted to the GMU Blackboard system which can be accessed at http://mymason.gmu.edu.
Teaching Assistant (TA): Changwei Liu (cliu6@gmu.edu)
TA Office Hours and Location: Monday, 3:30 - 5:30 PM; Thursday, 4:00 - 6:00 PM (Engineering Building Rm. 4456)
Grading:
The students must achieve a total score of at least 85 (out
of 100) to be considered for an A. No early exams will be given and make-up
exams are strongly discouraged. A
student should present an official and verifiable excuse to miss an exam (such
as a doctor's note). Each project
will have a soft copy and hard copy component that must be submitted by the
date specified on the project handouts. All students will be required to give
the demo of the last programming project in person, in the instructor’s
office.
All students must abide by the GMU Honor
Code and CS
Department's Honor Code and Academic Integrity Policies during the
semester. 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 automated tools such
as MOSS to detect plagiarism.
Violations of the 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
and on
VS&E Unix cluster zeus.vse.gmu.edu
(Instructions and related links are here). Students
can work
in VS&E computer labs for programming projects during the
specified hours.
Classroom Behavior: During the lectures, the students should avoid behavior that may distract others, including chatting, sleeping, playing games, surfing the web. All electronic communication devices (including laptops, PDAs, cell phones) should be either turned off or silenced during the lectures.
Disability Statement:
If you have a learning or physical difference that may affect your academic
work, you will need to furnish appropriate documentation to