COMP30640

This is a core module on the MSc. Computer Science (Conversion) and Higher Diploma in Computer Science programmes. The module is structured to present important concepts of operating systems with emphasis on fundamental topics and some practical exploration of these topics. The emphasis is on fundamental topics and techniques, although references to actual systems are made as well in order to illustrate concepts and/or implementation issues. The introduction is devoted to a brief history of operating systems, and their design issues and philosophies. The main components of an operating system are explained, and different approaches to how these components are organised and implemented are presented. This is followed by another very important topic, which is process management. The notion of process helps to explain, understand and control the execution of programs in an OS. This leads to the subject of how processes are organised (communication, cooperation, and synchronisation). Next we study process scheduling, which is at the heart of any multiprogrammed operating systems. We follow by studying memory management. More precisely we focus on the concepts of segmentation, paging, and virtual memory. Another key component that we study is the file system. Interference in resource utilisation is a serious threat in an OS. Two complementary sets of techniques to counter security threats are presented: protection and security.