COMP/ELEC 421:

Operating Systems and Concurrent Programming

Spring 2012

This course provides a basic understanding of the software that manages a computer's hardware resources to provide a powerful abstract interface on which user programs execute. The course focuses on the control and utilization of processor, memory, storage, and network resources. The concepts in this course include operating system structure, process management and scheduling, interprocess communication, synchronization of concurrent processes, deadlock, main and secondary storage management, virtual memory, file systems, protection and security, and an introduction to networking.

The course is structured into two parts, a principles part and a projects part. The lectures and projects have been sequenced so that by the time you are working on a project, we have covered the concepts involved in that project in the lectures. Your implementation in the projects will help make those concepts "real" and anchor these ideas in your mind.

News

Copies of the final exam are now available to be picked up from Amanda Nokleby in the Computer Science Department in Duncan Hall 3137. The completed final exam must be returned no later than 5:00 PM on Monday, April 30.
As announced in class, the final exam will be take-home, open-book, in the same way as the midterm exam was. In particular, during the exam, you may refer only to the course textbook, to any handouts from class, and to your own notes from any source made before starting the exam. The exam will focus on the material from the second half of the semester, after what was covered on the midterm exam (begining with Chapter 9). Also, to help you prepare for the final exam, a sample final exam is available (Rice only). Copies of the real final exam will be available to be picked up beginning on Tuesday, April 24 from Amanda Nokleby in the Computer Science Department in Duncan Hall 3137. The completed final exam must be returned no later than 5:00 PM on Monday, April 30.
Graded midterm exams can be picked up from Amanda Nokleby in the Computer Science Department in Duncan Hall 3137. You should have also received email giving you your grade on the exam and giving details on the grading and statistics. If you didn't receive this email, please let me know.

Course meetings:

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:50-12:05, Duncan Hall 1070.

Reading assignments:

The textbook for the class is Operating System Concepts, Eighth Edition, by Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne, 2009. Either the original version (2009) or the newer "Update" version (2011) of the Eighth Edition of the textbook is fine. The two versions are essentially identical except for one chapter that we will not use this semester.
You should have read Chapters 1-3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.1-12.6, 13.2, 14, and 15.

Instructor:

Dave Johnson, dbj@cs.rice.edu, DH 3007, x3063. Office hours: Tuesday 1:00-2:00pm.

TAs:

Keyvan Amiri, ka2@rice.edu, DH 2122. Office hours: Friday 3:00pm-4:00pm.
Milind Chabbi, milind.chabbi@rice.edu, DH 3107. Office hours: Friday 11:00am-12:00pm.
Anhei Shu, as43@rice.edu, DH 1083. Office hours: Wednesday 3:00pm-4:00pm.
Lei Tang, lt7@rice.edu, DH 3006. Office hours: Monday 1:00pm-2:00pm.
Wei-Cheng Xiao, wx6@rice.edu, DH 3011. Office hours: Thursday 3:00pm-4:00pm.