CSci 430/530: Operating Systems

Spring 2005

CSci 430:

Operating Systems

Class Home Page

Course Description:  This course focuses on the basics of designing and constructing an operating system (OS), from the basic level of the computer hardware, memory and peripheral devices, up to process management, file systems, etc.  We will be using the XINU operating system, developed at Purdue University by Douglas Comer and associates for teaching and learning about OS, as our focus for the class.  We will walk through the implementation of this small but complete OS from the hardware up, examining closely the C and Assembly source code that makes it all work.   The source code for XINU will be discussed in the class and projects will involve design and implementation of Unix like features into XINU.  The programming will all be in plain C (no object-oriented features will be used or discussed in the class) with OS system calls.  The student will have to read, understand, and modify existing C code.  Students taking this course for graduate level credit will be assumed to have some familiarity with basic OS concepts and will be given extra assignments and readings into advanced OS concepts.

 

Goals:  After completion of this course you will be familiar with the basic elements of an OS and how they may be implemented.  These elements include: scheduling and process management, process coordination, message passing, process creation, threading and forking, memory management, interrupt processing, device I/O and device drivers, file systems and shells.  Other goals include learning the Unix programming environment and simple system administration on Unix systems.

 

Prerequisite:  CSci 270

 

Text:   Operating System Design: Vol I The XINU Approach 

           by Douglas Comer and Timothy Fossum

           ISBN:  0136381804

Syllabus:  (PDF) (HTML) (DOC)