Operating Systems, Spring 2021 (Undergraduates)

This course offers an introduction to the concepts and principles in modern operating systems. This is offered as a required course in the undergraduate program.

Course Information

Instructor: Jenq-Haur Wang
E-mail: jhwang AT <the domain for our school>
Office: R1534, Technology Building, ext. 4238
Office Hours: Tue. & Thu. 9:10-12:00am
Class Hours: Mon. 13:10-14:00pm, Wed. 10:10-12:00am, R527/R227, 6th Teaching Building
TA: (TBD) (R1424, Technology Building)
Textbook: Operating System Concepts, 9th ed., by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, and Greg Gagne, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2013.
- Note: The latest edition is the 10th edition, which is available as "Asia Edition" in Taiwan. I will try to cover some of the latest topics whenever possible.
- Note: Earlier editions (such as 8th ed. or Java version) of the textbook is also acceptable. Changes in the latest edition will be mentioned whenever applicable.
- Note: Please do not confuse it with the authors' new version called "Operating System Concepts Essentials, 2nd Edition", which covers most of the core topics in the contemporary operating systems. Some chapters were removed, such as Deadlocks, Virtual Machines, and Distributed Systems, some of which will still be covered in this course.
References:
- Modern Operating Systems, 4th ed., by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Herbert Bos, Prentice-Hall, 2015. (MOS4)

Latest News

Jun. 30, 2021: [NOTE] The current score incuding all homeworks and exams has been announced. Please check if there's any questions. There will be some adjustment in the final score shortly.
Jun. 22, 2021: The current score including HW#1-HW#4 and midterm exam has been announced. Please check if there's any questions.
Jun. 7, 2021: The current score including HW#1-HW#3 and midterm exam has been announced. Please check if there's any questions.
Jun. 5, 2021: The current score including HW#1-HW#2 and midterm exam has been announced. Please check if there's any questions.
May 24, 2021: ***[NOTE]*** Since the pandemic has not been successfully contained, all courses will be online until Jun. 12, 2021. Further adjustment is subject to the changes of CDC announcement for epidemic warnings. Since there are more than 100 students enrolled in our course, it will be online until the end of this semester.
May 11, 2021: *** [NOTE] *** Due to the CDC announcement for raising COVID-19 epidemic warning to Level 2, effective from May 11 to June 8, our classes will be online during the same period since there are more than 100 students enrolled. Please use Microsoft Teams to join the online course.
Apr. 26, 2021: [NOTE] HW#3 has been announced.
Mar. 31, 2021: [NOTE] HW#2 has been announced.
Mar. 15, 2021: [NOTE] We are going to do the Practice for Distance Learning on Mar. 17 (Wed.) and Mar. 22 (Mon.). Please remember to join our team *as soon as possible* before that. Please check our Facebook group for instructions to join our team using Microsoft Teams.
Mar. 15, 2021: [NOTE] HW#1 has been announced.
Feb. 21, 2021: The homepage for Operating Systems (Spring 2021, Undergraduates) has been set up.

Tentative Schedule

NOTE: The tentative schedule and the slides are subject to modification.

Week	Date	Content	Homework
1	Feb. 22 & 24, 2021	Course Overview Chap. 1, Introduction	Ch.1 will be skimmed.
2	Mar. 1 & 3, 2021	(3/1: Compensation Leave for 228 Peace Memorial Day) Chap. 2, Operating System Structures	Ch. 2 will be skimmed. Exercsie #1
3	Mar. 8 & 10, 2021	Chap. 3, Processes	Sec.3.8 will be skipped.
4	Mar. 15 & 17, 2021	Chap. 4, Threads & Concurrency (3/17: Practice for Distance Learning) Processes and Threads in Linux (Chap.3 in ULK3)	HW#1 Sec.4.5 & 4.6 will be skipped.
5	Mar. 22 & 24, 2021	(3/22: Practice for Distance Learning) Chap. 5, CPU Scheduling Process Scheduling in Linux (Chap.7 in ULK3)
6	Mar. 29 & 31, 2021	Chap. 6, Synchronization Tools	Sec. 6.4 will be skimmed. Due: HW#1 HW#2
7	Apr. 5 & 7, 2021	(4/5: Leave for Tomb Sweeping Day) (4/7: Compensation Leave)
8	Apr. 12 & 14, 2021	(Leave for DASFAA 2021)
9	Apr. 19 & 21, 2021	Chap. 7, Synchronization Examples Synchronization in Linux (Chap.5 in ULK3) Chap. 8, Deadlocks	4/21 Due: HW#2
10	Apr. 26 & 28, 2021	Chap. 9, Main Memory Memory Addressing in Linux (Chap.2 in ULK3)	HW#3
11	May 3 & 5, 2021	(5/5: Midterm Exam)
12	May 10 & 12, 2021	Chap. 10, Virtual Memory Memory Management in Linux (Chap.8 in ULK3)	Due: HW#3 5/12: online
13	May 17 & 19, 2021	Chap. 11, Mass Storage Structure	5/17, 5/19: online
14	May 24 & 26, 2021	Chap. 12, I/O Systems Chap. 13, File-System Interface	HW#4 5/24, 5/26: online
15	May 31 & Jun. 2, 2021	Chap. 14, File System Implementation VFS in Linux (Chap.12 in ULK3) Chap. 15, File System Internals	5/31, 6/2: online
16	Jun. 7 & 9, 2021	Chap. 18, Virtual Machines	6/9 Due: HW#4 6/7, 6/9: online
17	Jun. 14 & 16, 2021	(6/14: Leave for Dragon Boat Festival) Chap. 18	6/14, 6/16: online
18	Jun. 21 & 23, 2021	(6/23: Final Exam)	6/23: online test

Homework Assignments

Please hand in your homework in paper form or in electronic files before deadline.
Programs or homework in electronic files must be submitted to me via our submission site as follows:

Program Submission Site: iSchool+
User Account: your account in Taipei Tech Portal
Program Uploading: Please compress source codes and documentation in a .zip file, and clearly name your program files.
Note: If your program needs special environment or tool to compile or run, please write documentation about it.

There will be at least 3-4 homeworks during this semester.

HW#1: Ch.1-3
Due: Mar. 29, 2021
HW#2: Ch.4-6
Due: Apr. 21, 2021
HW#3: Ch.7-9 (OSc, 9th ed.)
Due: May 10, 2021
HW#4: Ch.11-12 (OSc, 9th ed.)
Due: Jun. 9, 2021

If you have any questions about the homework, please contact with the TA via e-mail.

Exams

Midterm Exam: Apr. 18 - 24, 2021.
- Date: May 5, 2021 (TBD)
- Time: 10:10-12:00am
- Location: R227, 6th Teaching Building
- Range: (TBD), potentially Chap. 1-9
  You can check the major topics in Ch.1-10 for preparing your exam.
Final Exam: Jun. 20 - 26, 2021.
- Date: Jun. 23, 2021
- Time: 10:10-12:00am
- Location: R227, 6th Teaching Building
- Range: (TBD), potentially Chap. 1-15, 18

Score

Please check the final score for HW#1-HW#4, midterm and final exams (as of Jul. 5, 2021).
The score has been adjusted. Please check if there's any questions before noon, Jul. 5, 2021.

E-mail: jhwang AT <the domain for our school>
Created: Feb. 20, 2021.
Last Updated: Jul. 5, 2021.