This course takes a detailed look at the services provided by, and the internals of, an existing operating system to see how each part is constructed and integrated into the whole. The lectures will also address recent literature describing advances in operating systems. The following topics are addressed: system programming and its facilities (including I/O, signals, job control, interprocess communication, sockets, transport layers, remote operations), system calls and their relation to the system libraries, process management and coordination, implementation of message passing, memory management, interrupt handling, real-time clocks, device-independent input/output, serial-line drivers, network communication, disk drivers, deadlock avoidance, scheduling paradigms, file systems, security.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
At the completion of this course the student will be able to:
- identify and evaluate features of the system library of a particular operating system, and be able to apply this knowledge to program small applications
- describe and analyse the actual algorithms and data structures that are used in a particular operating system
- define and analyse the structure of operating systems in general, especially those that support communicating processes
- identify and describe the reasons for many architectural features of contemporary machines
- demonstrate experience in the design and implementation of a large software system
Other Information
Course offered Semester 2 in alternate, even-numbered years.
Indicative Assessment
Assignments (30%) Tutorials and Laboratories (10%) Final Exam (60%)
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Workload
Thirty one-hour lectures and six three-hour laboratory sessionsRequisite and Incompatibility
Preliminary Reading
Stallings, William Operating Systems, Prentice-Hall,7th edition, 2011
Specialisations
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 2
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2018 | $4080 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2018 | $5400 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
Second Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9132 | 23 Jul 2018 | 30 Jul 2018 | 31 Aug 2018 | 26 Oct 2018 | In Person | N/A |
