Operating Systems
CIS*3110 (W12)
Course Outline
General Information
| Regular classes: |
January 9, 2012 to April 5, 2012 |
| Final Exam: |
April 12, 2012 @ 1430 (CRSC 116/117) |
Overview
This course is intended to provide an introduction to the topic of operating
systems. It will examine the operation and implementation of modern operating
systems with an emphasis on their general functionality and internal
algorithms, rather than on details of any specific system; however, UNIX-based
operating systems will exemplify many of the principles discussed in the
course. Students will develop an understanding of operating system services,
scheduling and resource allocation, process management, I/O control, file
systems and fundamentals of network communication. Assignments are designed
to reinforce and permit exploration of a variety of concepts fundamental to
the operation of a multi-processing system.
Students entering this course are expected to have a good grasp of basic
procedural programming, modularity, data structures and reasonable experience
with the C programming language. We will make use of this foundation to
explore issues of system programming, and the software environment that
composes the modern operating system.
See
calendar description for additional information (including prerequisites).
Evaluation
- Assignments : 45% (3 x 15%)
- Quizzes : 20% (4 x 5%)
- Final exam : 35%
NOTE:
- Note that steps will be taken to screen all submitted assignments for
cheating (all screening takes place on campus, using department hardware).
All cases of suspected academic misconduct will be agressively
pursued following university guidelines (see note below regarding
the expectation of independent work).
- There is a strict policy of considering regrades for only seven (7)
calendar days from the date a quiz or assignment is returned to students
(see assignments or exam page for additional details). Regrade requests
will not be considered after this period.
- You must achieve a passing grade on both the assignment and quiz/exam
sections in order to obtain a passing grade in the course. Should you
fail one or both of these sections your final grade will be no higher than
44%.
- Assignments submission requirements must be followed exactly. Where
submission requirements are not satisfied a grade of 0 will be assigned
without exception.
- Students are expected to be familiar with all course policies posted on
the various web pages for this course, as well as university policies with
respect to students rights and responsibilities.
Required Text
Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, Operating System Concepts (8e). John Wiley & Sons, 2009 (ISBN 978-0-470-12872-5).
Academic Misconduct in
Computing
It is the policy of this department to treat cases of academic misconduct
seriously. This statement is intended to clarify our policies with regard to
academic misconduct in courses taken in the Department of Computing and
Information Science, and to clarify penalties for offenses as outlined in the
document, Penalties for Academic Misconduct: Dean's Guidelines, dated February
13, 1996 (all factual information and quoted material herein is based on this
document; students are free to review these guidelines by contacting the
Dean's Office). It is policy that all suspected cases of academic misconduct
are referred to the Chair of the department for consideration and referral to
the Dean of the college.
The Dean's Guidelines identify four offenses: plagiarism, misrepresentation,
examination cheating and impersonation. The most common forms of misconduct
exhibited in Computing are misrepresentation, and to a lesser extend
plagiarism.
Plagiarism: is the "verbatim copying or close paraphrasing of another person's
work without full and formal acknowledgement". Specificially, this involves
material from a book, research paper or other source being used without
acceptable referencing of the source material. This includes the use of
segment of code or non-standard algorithms that were obtained by a student
from a third party source, and used without permission and/or proper
references. Penalties for plagiarism range from 0 on the assignment in
question for minor first offenses to debarment and expulsion for subsequent
offenses.
Misrepresentation: refers to the submission of material created by someone
other than the student. This includes the copying of another students' source
code, in part or in whole, or submitting assignments from previous offerings
of the course. The Dean's Guidelines make it clear that "A student producing
work in the knowledge that it will be submitted by another student as that
student's work is also subject to penalty". Misrepresentation is a very
serious offense, with penalties ranging from 0 for the course "...if a student
submits material created by someone other than the student, whether purchased
or not, the intent being to pass off that work as one's own", to expulsion for
subsequent offenses.
Examination Cheating and Impersonation are less common, however carry
similarly serious penalties.
Note that we encourage students to collectively discuss design issues or
strategies for problem solving related to assignments. What is expected
however is that the written work and implementations resulting from these
discussions be independently produced by each student. Note that both the
student who gives their work to another student, or leaves work where others
may find it, and the student who uses the work are implicated to varying
degrees. Please take care not to leave your work around, or leave a
workstation without logging off. It is ultimately your responsibility to
protect the integrity of your own work.
Last Modified: 2012 / 03 / 27