Operating Systems

This course gives an introduction to the design and implementation of Operating Systems, the software that manages hardware and software resources on modern computing machinery.

Topics discussed in class include:

• function and structure of Operating Systems, system calls, interrupts, and exceptions, dual-mode execution, kernel architecture, device drivers

• processes, running multiple processes, and the various algorithms for CPU scheduling and their properties

• threads, inter-process communication, programming for concurrent execution and the danger of race conditions

• process synchronization, critical sections, mutual exclusion, and mechanisms for these, deadlocks and solutions

• mechanisms for multicore, parallel and distributed systems

• memory management techniques, virtual memory, paging and page table management

• protection and security, access control, security policies and mechanisms, side-channel attacks

• IO and storage, programming with IO, hard disk drives, disk scheduling, SSDs, RAID

• file systems, block allocation, directory structures, file systems in practice;

• virtualization, emulation, virtual machines.

Concepts and principles discussed in in this course are generally valid for any operating system, specific implementations like Linux or Windows are used as illustrations.

The final grade of the course consists of the following components:

• Mandatory Lab (pass/fail) consisting of:

  • Multiple mandatory lab assignments with individual deadlines (pass/fail)

• Digital exam (100%)

Final grade calculation:

• Mandatory Lab failed -> 1

• Mandatory Lab passed and Exam Grade < 5.8 -> Exam Grade

• Mandatory Lab passed and Exam Grade >= 5.8 -> Exam

Repair possibilities:

• Mandatory Lab - Assignments: each assignment may be resubmitted and re-sign-offs may be attempted an unlimited amount of times before its corresponding deadline, as long as TA capacity permits. Based on previous years this effectively means that students who start early can do 2-4 sign-off attempts. Additionally, exactly one assignment (for which no passing result was obtained before its deadline) can be repaired. In this case, the deadline for the assignment being repaired and for all subsequent lab assignments moves by one week and normal policy applies (unlimited resubmissions and re-sign-offs under the conditions stated above). This moving of subsequent deadlines is to give the student breathing room to catch back up.

• Digital exam: a resit is provided in the next quarter

Disclaimer: information may change depending on unforeseen circumstances or measures (see: TER Art 29, sub 4).