Tentative Syllabus

Because I teach to the students, and not to the syllabus, these dates and topics are tentative and subject to change without warning. In particular, if I don’t discuss something you’re interested in, ask about it! I may very well add it or modify what I’m covering to include it.

The discussion sections will present material on systems programming (“SP—” precedes the topic in these) or some particular aspects of the FreeBSD operating system. The discussion section topics are tentative and subject to change as we see fit. Regardless of the topic listed, all discussion sections have a few ground rules:

Date Topic Reading
1. Mon, Mar 31 Brief history of operating systems §1
2. Wed, Apr 2 Operating systems functions §2
Wed, Apr 2 Discussion Section: SP—introduction
3. Fri, Apr 4 Kernel architecture and management §3

4. Mon, Apr 7 Basics of processes §4.1–4.3, 4.5, 4.6
5. Wed, Apr 9 Parallelism and Concurrency §4.3–4.4
Wed, Apr 9 Discussion Section: SP—files, directories
6. Fri, Apr 11 Solutions to the critical section problem I

7. Mon, Apr 14 Solutions to the critical section problem II
8. Wed, Apr 16 Interprocess communication constructs §4.7, 11
Wed, Apr 16 Discussion Section: SP—process control
9. Fri, Apr 18 Process scheduling §4.4

10. Mon, Apr 21 Memory management basics §5
11. Wed, Apr 23 Memory management policies I §5
Wed, Apr 23 Discussion Section: FreeBSD memory management §5
12. Fri, Apr 25 Memory management policies II §5

13. Mon, Apr 28 I/O basics, devices §6.1–6.3, 7, 10
14. Wed, Apr 30 Process I/O, I/O scheduling §6.4–6.7
Wed, Apr 30 Discussion Section: Review for midterm
15. Fri, May 2 Midterm exam

16. Mon, May 5 File system organization §8
17. Wed, May 7 File system implementation §8
Wed, May 7 Discussion Section: SP—I/O
18. Fri, May 9 Network-based file systems §9

19. Mon, May 12 to be arranged
20. Wed, May 14 Deadlock: principles, models
Wed, May 14 Discussion Section: SP—IPC
21. Fri, May 16 Deadlock: practice

22. Mon, May 19 Security basics
23. Wed, May 21 Security mechanisms I
Wed, May 21 Discussion Section: SP—security
24. Fri, May 23 Security mechanisms II

Mon, May 26 No class (Memorial Day)
25. Wed, May 28 Networks and operating systems I §12
Wed, May 28 Discussion Section: SP—networks and processes
26. Fri, May 30 Networks and operating systems II §12, 13

27. Mon, Jun 2 Networks and operating systems III §13
28. Wed, Jun 4 to be arranged
Wed, Jun 4 Discussion Section: Review for final

Mon, Jun 9 Final exam

You can also obtain a PDF version of this. Version of March 29, 2008 at 7:50 PM