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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Informatics : Informatics

Undergraduate Course: Operating Systems (INFR10079)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Informatics CollegeCollege of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course provides an introduction to the design and implementation of modern general-purpose operating systems. It concentrates on the operating system kernel with the emphasis being on concepts that lead to practical implementations. Throughout the course reference is made to a number of widely-adopted general-purpose operating systems (including Linux, Windows, and OS X) to illustrate real implementations. An educational operating system is used for the coursework.
Course description The OS Kernel
*Micro and Monolithic kernels
*Multi-tasking, multi-user
*Interrupt handling, system calls

Process Management
*The process concept
*The thread concept
*Inter-process communication

Time Management
*CPU scheduling algorithms

Resource Management
*Synchronisation, mutual exclusion
*Semaphores, and monitors
*Deadlock prevention, avoidance, and detection

Memory Management
*The problem of allocation, protection, and sharing
*Physical and virtual memory
*Paged virtual memory

Storage Management
*Storage technologies
*File Systems

Virtualization
*Virtual Machines
*Containers

Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections: Operating Systems
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements This course is open to all Informatics students including those on joint degrees. For external students, where this course is not listed in your DPT, please seek special permission from the course organiser (lecturer).
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesVisiting students are required to have comparable background to that assumed by the course prerequisites listed in the Degree Regulations & Programmes of Study. If in doubt, consult the course organiser (lecturer).
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 20, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 174 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 50 %, Coursework 50 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) The coursework component is worth 50% of the overall grade of the course. The coursework consists of several programming exercises.

Exam 50%
Feedback Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)Operating Systems (INFR10079)2:120
Resit Exam Diet (August)2:00
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. describe the structure and components of modern operating systems
  2. explain the abstract concepts and concrete implementations of operating systems
  3. compare and contrast the differing approaches taken by various operating systems
  4. evaluate the suitability of differing approaches in different application domains
  5. design OS components to address particular needs
Reading List
A. Silbershatz, P. Galvin, and G. Gagne, 'Operating Systems Concepts' (10th Edition), John Wiley Addison-Wesley, 2018

W. Stallings, 'Operating Systems, Internals and Design Principles' (5th edition or later), Prentice Hall, 2005.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Antonio Barbalace
Tel: (0131 6)51 1417
Email: antonio.barbalace@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Rose Hynd
Tel: (0131 6)50 5194
Email: rhynd@ed.ac.uk
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