This course will introduce you to modern operating systems. We will focus on UNIX-based operating systems, though we will also learn about alternative operating systems, including Windows.
This course will introduce you to modern operating systems. We will focus on UNIX-based operating systems, though we will also learn about alternative operating systems, including Windows. The course will begin with an overview of the structure of modern operating systems. Over the course of the subsequent units, we will discuss the history of modern computers, analyze in detail each of the major components of an operating system (from processes to threads), and explore more advanced topics in the field, including memory management and file input/output. The class will conclude with a discussion of various system-related security issues.
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Explain what an operating system does and how it is used.
- Identify the various components of a computer system and how they interact with an operating system.
- Describe the differences between a 32-bit and 64-bit operating system.
- Explain the different types of operating systems and the major ones in use today.
- Discuss the importance and use of threads and processes in an operating system.
- Describe concurrency.
- Explain the difference between a thread and a process.
- Discuss context switching and how it is used in an operating system.
- Describe synchronization.
- Explain a race condition.
- Discuss interprocess communication.
- Describe how semaphores can be used in an operating system.
- Discuss three of the classic synchronization problems
- Explain the alternatives to semaphores.
- Discuss CPU scheduling and its relevance to operating systems.
- Explain the general goals of CPU scheduling.
- Describe the differences between pre-emptive and non-preemptive scheduling.
- Discuss four CPU scheduling algorithms.
- Explain what deadlock is in relation to operating systems.
- Discuss deadlock prevention, avoidance, and their differences.
- Describe deadlock detection and recovery.
- Explain the memory hierarchy.
- Discuss how the operating system interacts with memory.
- Describe how virtual memory works.
- Discuss three algorithms for dynamic memory allocation.
- Explain methods of memory access.
- Describe paging and page replacement algorithms.
- Describe a file system and its purpose.
- Discuss various file allocation methods.
- Explain disk allocation and associated algorithms.
- Discuss types of security threats.
- Describe the various types of malware.
- Explain basic security techniques.
- Explain basic networking principles.
- Discuss protocols and how they are used.
- Explain reference models, particularly TCP/IP and OSI.
