433-332 Operating Systems

433-252 Software Engineering Principles and Tools, 433-253 Algorithms and Data Structures and 433-254 Software Design

The objective of this subject is for students to understand the function of operating system components and their interactions; to be able to exploit operating system facilities to improve the functionality and efficiency of programs; and to be able to evaluate the suitability of a given operating system for a given task.

Topics covered include operating system structure: interrupts, system calls; memory management: paging, segmentation; concurrent processes: mutual exclusion, synchronisation, deadlocks, scheduling; input/output, DMA; file systems, security; and introduction to distributed systems.

Project work (expected to take about 36 hours) during semester and one written examination (not exceeding three hours) at the end of the semester. The project work must be completed satisfactorily to pass the subject. Weighting of assessment components will be advised at the commencement of the subject.