George Mason University
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
CS 471 -- Operating Systems
Spring 2012

F 1:30-4:15 pm, Art and Design Building L008

Prerequisites | Description | Readings | Topics | Grading | Lateness | Home Page

Professor Richard Carver
703-993-1550
rcarver@cs.gmu.edu
Course office hours: Course office hours: T, R: 10:00 - 10:30am
Engineering Bldg Room 5318

PREREQUISITES :
Grade of C or better in CS 310 and 367.

DESCRIPTION :
CS471 covers concurrent processes and synchronization mechanisms, processor scheduling, memory management, file management, I/O management, deadlock management, performance of operating systems, and projects dealing with synchronization in a multiprogrammed operating system and with virtual memory management.

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.

READINGS:
Required Textbook: "Operating System Concepts", by Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, 8th edition.

Students will be assigned readings in the textbook for each class. Students are expected to do each reading before coming to class. The readings are intended to give students grounding in the subject that will be further explained in the lecture. Lectures will be an opportunity to ask questions and explore the subjects in depth.

SYLLABUS (tentative):

Week 1:	Introduction to OSs and Computer System Structures
Week 1:	OS Structures
Week 2:	Processes
Weeks 3-4:	Threads
Week 5:	CPU Scheduling
Weeks 6-7:	Process Synchronization
Week 8:	Midterm
Week 9:	Deadlocks
Weeks 10-11:	Distributed Systems
Week 12:	Memory Management
Week 13:	Virtual Memory
Week 14:	Protection and Security
Week 15:	File System

GRADING POLICY :

Grades are based on two in-class exams (a midterm and a final), homework assignments, and programming projects. Grades will be numerical on the scale 0-100. Your final numerical grade, G, is computed as follows (tentatively):

G = (0.25 * Midterm) + (0.25 * Final_Exam) + (0.50 * Homework and Programming Assignments)

The following table is used to convert the final numerical grade to a letter grade:

G	letter grade
[98,100]	A+
[92,97]	A
[90, 91]	A-
[88, 89]	B+
[82, 87]	B
[80, 81]	B-
[78, 79]	C+
[70, 77]	C
[60, 69]	D
[0, 59]	F

LATENESS:

The late submission policy is as follows: assignments will be marked down 10% for each late day.

TEACHING ASSISTANT:

The TA for this course is Kevin Leach, gta@leach.yi.org, Office Hours: M 12-2pm, F 11am-1pm, and by appointment, in ENGR 4456.

The TA is available to answer technical questions about assignments. When sending a question to the TAs, please prefix the subject with CS471.

HONOR CODE:

You are expected to abide by the University's honor code during the semester. Any violation of the honor code will result in an F for the class.

CLASS HOME PAGE:

CS471 has a home page (http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~rcarver/cs471/)

RESOURCES:

1. ACM's Special Interest Group in Operating Systems (SIGOPS).
2. IEEE Computer Society's Distributed Systems Online.

Calendars