UB University of Baltimore
Merrick School of Business


INSS 454 - Operating Systems
Spring 2007

Mondays 5:30 - 8:00 PM - BC025

Professor Al Bento

officeBC 473v-mail837-5272
e-mailabento@ubalt.eduURLhttp://home.ubalt.edu/abento

Office hours: Mondays 2:00 - 4:30 PM and TBA

[assignments][mini-projects][exams][outline][WebTycho]

COURSE OBJECTIVES

A first objective of this course is to provide concepts, theories and frameworks to enable students to:

  1. identify the abstract services common to all operating systems
  2. define the basic operations system components that support the machine independent abstractions on particular target architectures
  3. understand how the entire system fits together, not merely how one or two important parts interact
  4. understand the means by which fundamental problems in operating systems can be analyzed
  5. discuss managerial issues related to operating systems, specially inter-operability and market analysis of operating systems products.

The first hour of each class meeting will review the main concepts, structure, and mechanisms of operating systems (see outline for specific topics).

A second objective of this course is to familiarize students with Windows XP and Linux operating systems. The students will be able to:

  1. login, customize, obtain information in a computer running Windows or Linux
  2. create, modify and remove users in a computer running Windows or Linux
  3. manage memory in swap files in a computer running Windows or Linux
  4. manage file systems in a computer running Windows or Linux
  5. obtain information and setup basic networking in a computer running Windows or Linux
The second hour and a half of each class meeting will be dedicated to demonstrations, hands-on exercises, etc, related to these operating systems.


CLASS MATERIALS

(on the World Wide Web)

Class handouts will be available on the Web at the following address of the course syllabus:

The course syllabus is linked to the class materials. You can see and print the class materials at the Lab and from your office or home (an Internet provider costs between $10-20 per month), using an Web browser.

Note: To print properly this syllabus set top and bottom margins to 1" in your browser.


ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Mini-projects (6) 30%
Assignments (weekly) 20%
Mid-term exam 20%
Final exam 30%

Mini- projects

The mini-projects are hands-on exercises in a given operating system. Your grade in the mini-projects will depend upon the content and structure of the final written report. The mini-projects are to be made in groups of three students. I created ten groups for this semester and will add your names after the first class meeting. Each group will work using a MIS Lab machine throughout the semester, and will have administrative privileges in their respective machines. Each group will create a report with screen capture of what you did (download free software for screen capture from Nonags) and post your group project report in the mini-project entry (1 to 6) of the Assignments folder of one of the group members in WebTycho. If the files become too large, please zip them before posting (again download free software from Nonags, if you do not have it). If you have problems capturing to your liking the reports, please use a free software from PrimoPDF to create a PDF file. In Linux use Ksnapshot (a standard software in KDE graphical desktop) to capture the screen, as needed.

  1. Treasure hunting in Windows
  2. Treasure hunting in Linux
  3. Managing users in Windows and Linux
  4. Memory management in Windows and Linux.
  5. File systems in Windows and Linux
  6. Treasure hunting in VISTA

Assignments

The assignments are to take part on an on-line Forum discussion on topics related to the concepts of operating systems. The assignments are to be done individually, and posted on the course Discussion in WebTycho up to 11 PM of the day before class meets. You are supposed to post a contribution to the discussions -- read what was posted before and add something new. I will post a question for discussion in weeks 2-6 and 10-14, and each student should post a follow-up message to my questions. Please take into consideration what others have already said and what I may have already replied.

Mid-term Exam

The mid-term exam will consist of two parts: (a) concepts and (b) products. This is an open-book, open notes, exam. Bring your projects and assignments for they may help you. You will need to explain your answers in two to three lines. Be sure that the answer you select matches the explanation you provide. If you choose the right answer but there is no, or a wrong, explanation your answer will be considered wrong. If you choose the wrong answer but you provide the right explanation your answer will be considered right.

Final Exam

The final exam will consist of two parts: (a) concepts and (b) products. This is an open-book, open notes, exam. Bring your projects and assignments for they may help you. You will need to explain your answers in two to three lines. Be sure that the answer you select matches the explanation you provide. If you choose the right answer but there is no, or a wrong, explanation your answer will be considered wrong. If you choose the wrong answer but you provide the right explanation your answer will be considered right.



TEXTBOOK

Deitel, H., Deitel, P., Chofness, D. Operating Systems, 3rd ed.: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2004.

Books on Reserve in the Library

Web references

Look here for additional web references. Posted weekly, as needed.


OUTLINE
  5:30 - 6:45 7:00 - 8:00 Assignments
01/29 Introduction and group formation Windows XP overview   (21.1-21.5).  
02/05 Computer & OS overview (1,2) Linux overview (20.1-.3) and Fedora customization Complete information on Forum and introduce yourself
02/12 Process description and control (3) Basic tools to manage Windows XPmp 1 - treasure hunting in Windows
02/19 Threads, SMP and Microkernels (4) Kernel, process and treads: Windows (21.6) and Linux (20.4,.5)  
02/26 Concurrency and Dealock (5,6,7) Basic tools to manage Linux mp 2 - treasure hunting in Linux
03/05 Scheduling (8)    
03/12 Memory Management (9,10,11) Memory in Windows (21.7) and Linux (20.6). User management: Windows and Linux.   Using Sudo in Fedora Core mp 3 - managing users in Windows and Linux
03/19 Spring Break Spring Break  
03/26 Mid-Term exam Mid-Term exam  
04/02 Disk performance (12) Virtualization in Windows and Linux. Windows services and disk management (21.8,.9) mp 4 - memory management in Windows and Linux
04/09 File systems, RAID, and storage management (13) Linux filesystems (20.7,.8).  
04/16 No class meeting.    
04/23 SMP and Clusters (14, part of 15, part of 18)Distributed Processing and Client/Server (17, part of 18) Windows networking (21.10 - .12). mp 5 - File systems in Windows and Linux
04/30 Microsoft VISTA Overview (in-class demonstration). Linux daemons and networking (20.10,.11) mp 6 - treasure hunting in VISTA
05/07 Security (19). Security in Windows (21.13) and Linux (20.13)Final exam review  
05/14 Final exam    

Note: numbers between parenthesis refer to chapter(s) in the textbook


This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubalt.edu This page was last updated on April 26, 2007. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.