Course Description

This course is intended for students who are planning to major or minor in Computer Science.

This course provides the student with a general model of operating systems principles and current implementation techniques. The principles and mechanisms which underlie operating systems services will be covered. Topics include process and thread abstractions including inter-process communication and synchronization, file management, memory management and virtual memory, file systems, protection schemes, distributed systems principles, and device handlers. Students will complete a medium-size systems software project.

Diversity and Inclusion

I intend for every student to feel their voice is welcome in this course. My goal is to create a learning environment that supports each of you and embraces the diversity that you all bring. All members of the class are expected to be respectful and supportive of each other's ideas and identities, even when they disagree. Even when discussing narrow technical matters, racism, sexism, and other hidden assumptions can appear, and there are difficult ethical dimensions to everything we do as computer scientists. I will endeavor to point these out when they appear, and to check my own assumptions about your past experiences and perspectives. We all make mistakes that can impact others. but I hope that by committing to listen reflectively, and without defensiveness, we can build a strong and inclusive community. Please let me know if there is anything in class meetings, in office hours, in study sessions, or elsewhere that troubles you or makes you feel uncomfortable or unvalued. Even for events outside of the classroom, I welcome and appreciate any suggestions you have pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

If you prefer to speak with someone outside the course, please do not hesitate to reach out to any other faculty, the class deans, department members of the student advisory council, or others you feel more comfortable speaking with.

Also, if you have a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear on my class roster, please let me know!

Required Strongly Recommended Textbook

Operating Systems Concepts, Eighth Edition (or later)
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne.
ISBN: 0470128720 / 978-0470128725

Grading & Assignments

There will be several assignments involving C/C++ programming and shell scripting, of varying levels of difficulty and duration. There will also be several written assignments in which you will answer questions about operating systems concepts. Emphasis will be roughly evenly split between programming projects and written assignments. There will be a midterm and a final exam.

The final grade will be computed approximately as follows:

Examinations

There will be one evening mid-term exam and one final exam.

• Mid-term Exam: TBD
• Final exam: during finals week, at a time chosen by the College.

If you cannot attend these exams, please see the instructor immediately to arrange an alternative time.

Late Policy

You will receive 3 flex days for the semester. Each time you turn any programming project or homework late will use up some of your flex days. After you have used up your flex days, penalties will apply. The maximum possible score for an assignment will be reduced by 10% for each day or portion of a day that the assignment is turned in late. So the maximum possible score for an assignment turned in up to 24 hours late is 90%, and the maximum possible score for an assignment turned in up to 48 hours late is 80%, and so on. The penalty will be determined when all parts of the assignment (both electronic and paper copies, if needed) are received by the instructor or the department administrative assistant. In no case will late work be accepted after the solution is published or graded assignment is returned to the class.

Discussion Log & Collaboration Policy

Please refer to the math and CS department honor code policy.

A typed discussion log is required for each and every assignment. No work will be accepted without a written discussion log.

In general, you may refer to your texts, your class notes, and your course instructor for help. You may also consult public literature (books, articles, web sites) for general information and examples, but you should not seek or use published solutions to assignments. You may also talk with with fellow students about general information and strategies for solving assignments, but not specific solutions or code. If you are in doubt about what is acceptable, be sure to ask the course instructor.

Clarification about online sources: It is fine to use Google to look for snippets of publicly available code that might help you with assignments, and it is okay to use a limited amount of such code in your own work. You should not take entire solutions or large amounts of code from the web. And you must clearly comment your code to indicate which code and ideas are purely your own, which code or ideas are borrowed or adapted from elsewhere, and where the other code or ideas came from.

In all cases you must cite each source of ideas you adopt in your discussion log for each assignment. You should never present another person's work as your own. By clearly indicating any sources you consult and the people with whom you collaborate, you are giving credit where it is due. If you borrow or adapt code, and if the code is good, then you will get some credit for having found it (you won't get credit for writing it, since you didn't). If you borrow bad code, the fault is all yours.

Discussion Log

For each assignment, you must keep a log detailing every collaboration you had with someone else and every source you consulted when completing the assignment. Each log entry must include: the date and time, the source, the length of time spent talking or reading, and a summary of discussion or material read. You don't need to include the course textbook, the lecture notes, or the instructor, since it is assumed you will consult these sources. Even if you did not discuss anything with anybody and never consulted any other sources, you must still submit a discussion log that says just that.