Fall 1999

TuTh 2:00 – 3:15pm
Ferguson 111

An operating system is an essential part of almost all computer systems. The operating system is the software system that provides the interface between users, their applications, and the underlying hardware. The purpose of this course is to introduce some of the fundamental concepts in the design of an operating system including:

• Organization and structure of operating systems.
• Processes and concurrent programming.
• Inter-process communication.
• Process synchronization using reads/writes, semaphores, and monitors.
• CPU scheduling.
• Deadlocks including detection, avoidance, prevention and recovery.
• Memory organization and management including paging, segmentation, virtual memory, and page replacement algorithms.
• File system concepts and structure.
• Real-time systems (as time permits).

The textbook for this course is

We will cover (almost) all of Parts 1-6. Chapters 1-13 will definitely be covered. Chapters 15-17 and 19-20 will be covered as time permits.

In addition to the texts, I will hand out a set of lecture notes at each class. These notes are purposely incomplete and are meant to simply be a note-taking aid. If you miss class, copies of lecture notes, as well as copies of all class handouts, can be found on the CSCE 451/851 home page on the Web at URL:

http://www.cse.unl.edu/~goddard/Courses/CSCE451/

Prerequisites for this course are CSCE 231 (Assembly Language and Systems Programming) and CSCE 310 (Data Structures and Algorithms). As part of our ongoing accreditation process, there will be an evaluation of your understanding of the material covered in the prerequisite courses. This evaluation will be graded as a homework assignment.

Your grade in this class will based on:

Homework will be assigned approximately on a bi-weekly basis. Assignments will range from programming exercises to pen and paper problems. All pen and paper assignments will be collected at the start of class on the day on which they are due. All programming assignments will be due at 6pm on the day on which they are due. (Programming assignments will usually be due on Wednesdays.) Written homework will be collected by the instructor; programming assignments will be submitted via the handin program.

All homework submitted after its deadline is considered late. Assignments that are submitted within 24 hours after the original deadline are considered to be "one day late," within 48 hours, "two days late," etc. A late homework assignment will be accepted without penalty if the following conditions are met:

Late programs should be handed in with the handin program. Late written assignments must be hand delivered to either the instructor or the TA.

The penalty for late assignments is 25% per day they are late. An assignment that is 4 days late will receive no credit. Weekends count in evaluating the lateness of an assignment.

Students who submit all homework assignments on time will receive a 10% homework grade bonus at the end of the semester. That is, a student will receive a bonus of 10%*40% = 4% for his/her final grade if all homework assignments are submitted on time.

There will be two midterm exams; the first will be given on October 14, and the second on November 18. The final exam for this course is scheduled for Thursday, December 16 at 1:00 pm. The second midterm will only cover material presented in class since the first midterm (i.e., not on the first midterm); the final exam covers the entire course.

Students are encouraged to work together on homeworks and programming assignments. Acceptable collaboration on homework includes:

In all cases you must explicitly acknowledge any and all substantive help received from other individuals during the course of the preparation of your homework solution. That is, if you collaborate with other individuals then you must include an explicit acknowledgment in your homework solution of the persons from whom you received aid.

Unacceptable collaboration, unless explicitly stated, on homework includes:

The general rule to be followed is that the strategy and approach of solutions may be developed jointly but all actual solutions (i.e., the final solution) must be constructed and written up individually. Work done jointly should not be done in sufficient detail as to make it a solution. For example, the design of a program solution made be performed jointly, however, each student must write all the code they eventually submit as their solution. No code may be shared between students, unless the assignment is a group project. Similarly, for written assignments, solutions may sketched out jointly, however each student must construct the final form of their solution individually and write-up their own solution.

Unacceptable collaboration will be considered a violation of the Student Code of Conduct, and will result in a failing grade for the course. In other words: if you cheat, you will fail!

Should questions arise the course of working on a problem please feel free to immediately contact the instructor either by telephone, electronic mail, or by an office visit. In principle, if you work with others in good faith and are honest and generous with your attributions of credit you will have no problems.

The following is the ideal outline for this course. The only dates on this outline that are guaranteed to be correct are that of the first lecture, the midterm exams, and the final exam. The readings listed for each lecture should be completed prior to the lecture.