PROPOSAL FOR A NEW COURSE

Date of proposal: 4/10/06

Title: Operating Systems

Department and Course Number: CSCI 311

Crosslisted?   Yes   No X     If yes, crosslisting department and number:

Credit: 1/2   Hours/week: 6 in one module

One-time:     or    Permanent Offering: X

Instructor: Steven Huss-Lederman

How will this course be taught, given present staffing, without creating a course overload?

This course proposal is part of a comprehensive change to the computer science curriculum. The course load under this proposal will not create an overload.

Are there any course fees? If so, specify what the course fees are intended to cover.

None

Prerequisite(s):

Computer Science 125, 205, and 211

Catalog description (50-150 words, please):

If applicable, include the following language at the end:  “May be repeated for credit if topic is different.”

Operating systems are the software systems that both control the operation of the computer and provide the interface between the user and the computer. This course covers operating system principles, concurrency mechanisms, scheduling, memory management, file systems and security. A emphasis is placed on the principles used in modern operating systems while still discussing major systems in use today.

Additional course content description (aims, purposes, etc.) beyond the catalog description:

This course builds on the ideas of threads presented in CSCI 211. As such, it assumes a basic working knowledge of threads and concurrency issues. Thus, the course emphasizes other areas of operating systems (OS) while still discussing OS related issues in concurrency. The emphasis is placed on the concepts in modern OS rather than the implementation of these systems.

The lettered/numbered lines below come from CC2001. Underlined items are considered essential to a basic curriculum in computer science. Numbers in () indicate minimum number of hours to cover in a lecture style according to CC2001.
Items with a * indicate we plan to cover them in multiple courses.
Other lines include additional topics we plan to cover or clarification of topics we will cover within a CC2001 topic.

• OS1. Overview of operating systems (2)
• OS2. Operating system principles (2)
• *OS3. Concurrency (6)
  deadlock prevention algorithms
• OS4. Scheduling and dispatch (3)
  More than 3 hour basics
• OS5. Memory management (5)
  Including virtual memory
• OS7. Security and protection
  Basic intro and/or in networks
• OS8. File systems
  Basic intro
• Disk scheduling, interrupts

Course goals/objectives/outcomes: 

At the end of this course students should be able to:

• appreciate the role of an OS in a computer system
• understand the details of how programs run on computer systems, including processes, threads, scheduling, security and resource management
• explain the basic OS algorithms and appreciate how to apply them in new situations
• continue their study of OS to encompass distributed systems and OS implementation

Course structure. Check all that apply:

 Lecture/Discussion X      Studio     Lab/Workshop  X   Other (Specify)

If current library or equipment holdings are inadequate, estimate the cost of additional holdings required.

adequate.

Please attach names of a proposed text and/or core readings.

Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles, fifth edition by William Stallings. Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-147954-7, 2005.

Form revised 11/04