Course outline
CSE 309 Operating System — a summary of the official course outline, with each lecture linked to its slide deck.
General information
| Course | CSE 401/309 · Operating System · core course |
| Credit | 3.0 units · 3 contact hours per week |
| Programme | B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Prerequisite | None |
| Textbook | Silberschatz, Galvin & Gagne, Operating System Concepts Essentials, 10th ed., Wiley, 2018 |
| Reference | William Stallings, Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles, 9th ed., Pearson |
Course objectives
- Understand fundamental concepts, architecture and functions of operating systems.
- Study process management, memory management, file systems and I/O systems.
- Analyze synchronization, deadlock and resource-allocation strategies.
- Explore modern OS design principles and case studies (e.g. Linux, Windows).
Course outcomes
| CO | Description | PO | Bloom level | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CO1 | Demonstrate OS goals, concepts, structures and designs while discovering interactions among computing-system components, and construct efficient solutions for the OS synchronization problem | PO1 | Cognitive C3 (apply) | 60% |
| CO2 | Analyze the policies for the kernel, scheduling, deadlocks, memory management, synchronization, system calls and file systems | PO2 | Cognitive C4 (analyze) | 30% |
| CO3 | Distinguish different types of operating systems and the performance of various operating systems such as Windows and Linux | PO5 | Psychomotor P1 (perception) | 10% |
Assessment
| Type | Method | CO1 | CO2 | CO3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summative | Final exam | 20% | 20% | 40% | |
| Summative | Midterm exam | 20% | 10% | 30% | |
| Formative | Class tests (best two of at least three) | 10% | 10% | ||
| Formative | KSA test 1 (attendance + quiz) | 5% | 5% | 10% | |
| Formative | KSA test 2 (complex assignment) | 5% | 5% | 10% | |
| Total | 60% | 30% | 10% | 100% |
Lecture plan
| Lecture | Topic | Slides |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Socialization and introduction to the course | — |
| 2 | What operating systems do, OS structure and operation, process, memory, storage management | Chapter 1 |
| 3 | Protection & security, distributed systems, special-purpose systems, computing environments, open-source OS | Chapter 1 |
| 4 | OS services, user–OS interface, system calls, types of system calls | Chapter 2 |
| 5–6 | System programs, OS design and implementation, OS structure and virtual machines, system booting, OS debugging and generation | Chapter 2 |
| 7–8 | Process concept, process scheduling, operations on processes, IPC, examples of IPC systems, client–server communication | Chapter 3 |
| 9 | Swapping, contiguous memory allocation | Chapter 9 |
| 10 | Paging, structure of the page table, segmentation | Chapter 9 |
| 11 | Demand paging, page replacement | Chapter 10 |
| 12 | Allocation of frames, thrashing, allocating kernel memory | Chapter 10 |
| 13 | Tutorial class | — |
| 14 | Multithreading models, thread libraries, threading issues, OS examples | Chapter 4 |
| 15–16 | Scheduling criteria, scheduling algorithms | Chapter 5 |
| 17 | Thread scheduling, multiple-processor scheduling | Chapter 5 |
| 18 | OS examples, algorithm evaluation, the critical-section problem, Peterson’s solution, synchronization hardware, semaphores | Chapter 5, Chapter 6 |
| 19 | Classic problems of synchronization, monitors | Chapter 6 |
| 20 | Synchronization examples, atomic transactions | Chapter 6 |
| 21 | System model, deadlock characterization | Chapter 8 |
| 22–23 | Methods for handling deadlocks, deadlock prevention | Chapter 8 |
| 24–25 | Deadlock detection, recovery from deadlock | Chapter 8 |
| 26 | Tutorial class | — |
Midterm: chapters 1, 2, 3, 9, 10. Final: chapters 4, 5, 6, 8.
Grading policy
| Marks | Grade | Point | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80% and above | A+ | 4.00 | Excellent |
| 75% – <80% | A | 3.75 | Excellent |
| 70% – <75% | A− | 3.50 | Very good |
| 65% – <70% | B+ | 3.25 | Good |
| 60% – <65% | B | 3.00 | Good |
| 55% – <60% | B− | 2.75 | Good |
| 50% – <55% | C+ | 2.50 | Average |
| 45% – <50% | C | 2.25 | Average |
| 40% – <45% | D | 2.00 | Below average |
| below 40% | F | 0.00 | Failing |
Course policies
- Bring your own calculator, notebook and pen; do not borrow in class.
- Late submission of assignments carries a zero mark; the average of assignment marks counts.
- At least three class tests, with or without announcement; the best two count. No make-up tests; missing a test without notice gives zero.
- Midterm and final are closed book and closed notes; mobile phones are prohibited in the exam hall; bring a non-smart watch.
- Laptops and phones are strongly discouraged during class.