Operating Systems

• Required teaching materials:
  • Textbook: Operating Systems, Internals and Design Principles, 4th Edition
  
  Author: William Stallings
  ISBN: 0-13-887407-7
  Published by Prentice-Hall
• Bookpool web page to purchase this book
• Software: RedHat Linux 7.3 (or later) from Linux Central
  This comes with no support. If you want a supported copy of Linux, purchase an official copy from RedHat Corporation
• Recommended book (optional)
  • Title: Linux: Installation, Configuration, Use
  • Author: Michael Kofler
  • Publisher: Addison-Wesley
  • ISBN: 0 201 59628 8
  • Bookpool web page to purchase this book

Exam 3, due 7/31/2002

Homework assignments
Check this page often!

Web page to look up your grades at any time

Discussion Group for this class

Unix links

• Other course materials: A free Unix (Linux, or one of the three BSD's)
  Cheap Bytes (a cheap source for Unix CDs)
• Linux Home Page
• MkLinux Home Page (Apple's Linux for the Macintosh Power PC)
• The three BSD's (the first two use the revolutionary UVM virtual memory algorithm):
  • OpenBSD (the world's most secure operating system). Runs on the following architectures: x86 (of course), sparc, amiga, hp30, Macintosh 68K, mvme, 68K, and Macintosh PowerPC
  • NetBSD (a highly portable operating system). Runs on everything (well, almost everything). It was the first unix-like OS to be ported to the Macintosh 68K.
  • FreeBSD (the world's fastest operating system and basis for Apple OSX). Runs on: x86, Alpha, and Macintosh PowerPC.
  Note: all three BSD's may be downloaded and installed from the net. CD's are also available for them (check the web sites) or cheapbytes.
• General techy news (somewhat Linux oriented)
• BSD news
• Latest Unix software
• The Partition Resizer Home Page
  A GUI program that runs under DOS for resizing Windows 95, 98, Me and other partitions without losing data

This course will study and compare several modern operating systems. There will five web-based exams and several Unix-based term projects:

1. The first assignment covers obtaining and installing RedHat Linux on a student's machine. This involves:
   • Partitioning the hard drive. This can be done without destroying the Windows software already present.
     Parted can resize (i.e., shrink) Windows partitions.
     See Parted Home Page and Bootdisk form of Parted (see the README file in this directory).
   • Creating a swap partition.
   • Deciding on the software configuration to get.
   • Configuring the network: ppp and dsl connections.
   • Configuring X windows. Choosing a desktop.
2. Chapter 1-2.
   • Overview and the history of operating systems
   • Monolithic verses small-kernel operating systems
   • Concurrency and protected memory.
3. Chapter 2, section 4
   • Characteristics of modern operating systems
4. Chapter 3.
   • Process states.
   • Managing processes.
5. Chapter 4.
   • Processes and threads
     • Linux Threads Home Page Pthreads tutorial
       Gnu Portable Threads (pth)
   • Symmetric multiprocessing
   • Microkernels
   • Windows NT and Solaris process management.
6. Chapter 5.
   • Controlling concurrency
   • Dekker's and Peterson's Algorithms
   • Semaphores, monitors, and message-passing
   • Interprocess communication in Unix.
7. Chapter 6.
   • Deadlock and starvation.
   • The Banker's Algorithm
8. Chapter 7.
   • Memory management.
   • Paging.
9. Chapter 8.
   • Hardware Interface
   • Operating system software.
   • Virtual memory
   • Unix and Solaris memory management.
10. Chapter 9-10.
    • Scheduling: uniprocessor
    • Multiprocessor scheduling
11. chapter 11.
    • I/O scheduling.
    • RAID.
12. Chapter 12
    • File management. Filesystems
13. Chapter 13
    • Networking: TCP/IP
14. Chapter 15.
    • Security

Links:

1. FreeBSD Virtual Memory Algorithms
2. Operating systems Home Page
3. Macintosh OSX announcement
4. Multics Web sites:
   1. Multics Home Page
   2. Another Multics site
5. The SR programming language (a concurrent programming language used in some exercises
6. The AtheOS (a free operating system with a built-in GUI)
7. ReactOS: A free clone of Windows NT
8. Rome Operating System
   an operating system designed for real time programming and rapid transmission of data
9. the Sky OS
   Another free Operating System with a built-in GUI
10. the Menuet Operating System
    a free Operating System with a built-in GUI that is written entirely in assembly language (so it's small --- it fits on a single floppy disk)
11. The OS News Home Page
12. The MPD Concurrent Programming Language