Undergraduate Course: Operating Systems (INFR10079)
Course Outline
| School | School of Informatics |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This 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
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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-requisites | This is a third-year honours level course; students are expected to have an academic profile equivalent to the first two years of this degree programme. Assessment of eligibility for honours level courses will be made on an individual basis. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, 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
60 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Operating Systems (INFR10079) | 120 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- describe the structure and components of modern operating systems
- explain the abstract concepts and concrete implementations of operating systems
- compare and contrast the differing approaches taken by various operating systems
- evaluate the suitability of differing approaches in different application domains
- 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 |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Antonio Barbalace
Tel: (0131 6)51 1417
Email: antonio.barbalace@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Rose Hynd
Tel: (0131 6)50 5194
Email: rhynd@ed.ac.uk |
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