George Mason University

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

CS 471 Operating Systems – Spring 2018

Instructor: Dr. Daniel Barbará

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.

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 comfortable with the C programming language.

Meeting Times and Locations:

• Section 002:  W; 3-4:15PM  Robinson Hall A111

Readings:
Required Textbook: "Operating System Principles & Practice", by Thomas Anderson and Michael Dahlin ISBN 978-0-9856735-2-9 Recursive Books

Office Hours: : By appointment(Office: Eng. Buldg., Room 4420)

Teaching Assistant (TA): TBA

TA Office Hours:TBA

Course Web Page: http://cs.gmu.edu/~dbarbara/CS471/index.html

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 the concurrent operation of multiple tasks (processes/threads) and an ability to solve basic process synchronization problems that arise from concurrent operation settings
• 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 ever increasing networking features have affected (and are affecting) operating system design
• Be able to implement a suite of basic algorithms proposed for the main OS services such as memory management and process scheduling

Grading:

• Midterm 25%
• Final 35%
• Programming Projects 40%

No early exams will be given and make-up exams are strongly discouraged.

Homeworks and assignments will be collected on the date indicated in class. Late submissions will be penalized at 15% each day, and will not be allowed after 3 days of the due date.
The Honor Code will be enforced. The students are supposed to work individually on the assignments/projects, unless told otherwise. 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.

No smartphones, or recorders allowed in class. Lectures cannot be recorded without special permission from the instructor

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.