CSCI 4320 (Principles of Operating Systems):
Lecture Topics and Assignments

The table below shows what we will be discussing in each class meeting, readings (from the textbook unless otherwise indicated), dates of exams, and due dates for homeworks. Dates of exams are fixed; other items are subject to change.

 
Date Topics Reading Due dates
August 29 (F) No class    
September 1 (M) Holiday    
September 3 (W) About the course (Notes)    
September 5 (F) Overview and history of operating systems (Notes) 1.1, 1.2  
September 8 (M) Overview of hardware functionality, operating system concepts (Notes) 1.3, 1.4, 1.5  
September 10 (W) System calls (Notes) 1.6  
September 12 (F) No class    
September 15 (M) Operating system structures (Notes) 1.7, 1.8 (skim), 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12  
September 17 (W) Processes (Notes) 2.1  
September 19 (F) Threads (Notes) 2.2  
September 22 (M) Interprocess communication (Notes) 2.3 Homework 1: HTML, PDF
September 24 (W) Interprocess communication, continued (Notes)    
September 26 (F) Interprocess communication, continued (Notes)    
September 29 (M) Interprocess communication, continued (Notes)    
October 1 (W) No class    
October 3 (F) No class    
October 6 (M) Interprocess communication, continued (Notes)    
October 8 (W) Scheduling (Notes) 2.4 Homework 2: HTML, PDF
October 10 (F) Classical IPC problems (Notes) 2.5  
October 13 (M) More about scheduling; review for midterm (Notes)   Homework 3: HTML, PDF
October 15 (W) Midterm (Review in HTML, PDF)    
October 17 (F) Holiday    
October 20 (M) No class    
October 22 (W) No class    
October 24 (F) No class    
October 27 (M) Memory management (Notes) 3.1, 3.2  
October 29 (W) Memory management, continued (Notes) 3.3  
October 31 (F) Memory management, continued (Notes) 3.4, 3.5, 3.6  
November 3 (M) No class    
November 5 (W) Memory management, continued (Notes)    
November 7 (F) Memory management, continued (Notes) 3.7, 3.8, 3.9  
November 10 (M) Memory management, continued (Notes)    
November 12 (W) Filesystems (Notes) 4.1, 4.2, 4.3  
November 14 (F) Filesystems, continued (Notes) 4.4 Homework 4: HTML, PDF
November 17 (M) (Notes) 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 Homework 5: HTML, PDF
November 19 (W) No class    
November 21 (F) No class    
November 24 (M) I/O (Notes) 5.1, 5.2, 5.3  
November 26 (W) A little about booting (Notes)    
November 28 (F) Holiday    
December 1 (M) (Notes) 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10  
December 3 (W) Deadlocks (Notes) 6 (skim)  
December 5 (F) A little about security (Notes) 9 (skim) Homework 6: HTML, PDF
December 8 (M) Course wrap-up and evaluations (Notes)   Homework 7: HTML, PDF
December 16 (T), 2pm Final exam (Review in HTML, PDF)    
December 18 (Th), noon     Optional extra-credit problems: HTML, PDF