Last year's COMP25111 web-site. (Earlier versions of this course-unit were known as COMP20051 and CS2051.)

COMP25111 - Operating Systems

This web-site contains information that doesn't change much (except to be updated each year).
The COMP25111 Blackboard site contains anything that is more interactive plus Richard's handouts

Please let us know if you would like e.g. large-print handouts, or any similar help, for e.g. medical problems.

Laboratory Deadlines

Each laboratory exercise has the usual deadline at the end of the last lab slot for it. If you attend the scheduled lab session you will, if you need it, get an automatic extension to 5pm one week later, except at the end of the semester – all lab work needs to be submitted by 5pm on the last Friday (12th December 2014). This is so that you can get help in the lab and then have some time to make use of that help to complete the exercise. You should use "submit" and "labprint" in the usual way to show that you completed your work by the deadline. If you decide to complete the exercise after our labs shut in the evening, it is your responsibility to make sure that you can "submit" remotely (and to remember to do so).

Activities

Week

Lectures (2/week)

Labs (1/fortnight)

The Computer Architecture lectures (2 and 3) and lab (1) are split: students who have taken COMP15111 with John, those who haven't with Richard (in IT407)

1

1: Introduction (John)

-

2: MU0 Datapaths (John) (Q&A)

2: Introduction to MU0 (Richard, in IT407)

2

3: MU0 Control Signals (John) (Q&A)

3: MU0 Assembly code (Richard, in IT407)

-

4: Operating System concepts (John) (Q&A)

3

5: Process Manager (John) (Q&A)
6: Scheduling (John) (Q&A)

Lab 1: MU0 Control signals (John)

Lab 1: MU0 assembler programming (Richard, in usual lab room)

4

7: Scheduling (John) (Q&A)
8: Synchronisation (John) (Q&A)

-

5

9: Threads in Java (John) (Q&A)
10: Memory Management 1 (Richard) – sorry, I lost this link and have been unable to retrieve it, but it is the same as for Lectures 11 to 15 (see below)

Lab 2: Scheduling (John)

6

Reading Week

7

11: Memory Management 2 (Richard)
12: Memory Management 3 (Richard)

-

8

13: Memory Management 4 (Richard)
14: Input/Output 1 (Richard)

Lab 2 continued

9

15: Input/Output 2 (Richard)

cancelled

-

10

16: File Manager (John) (Q&A)
17: MS Windows (John) (Q&A)

Lab 3: Paging (Richard) – Details on BlackBoard

11

18: Linux (John) (Q&A)

(revision)

-

12

(revision)

Lab 3 continued

There will be a final lab-marking session in the first teaching week of Semester 2:  The marking catch-up session will take place in Kilburn G23 from 3pm onwards on Tuesday 27th January 2015. Teaching Assistants and staff will be present to mark any unmarked exercises you may have. Please attend the session and write your name on the whiteboard in the usual way. Experience tells us that there will be many students at the session, so it may take time for us to get round to everybody. Please be patient and be prepared to stay around for as long as it takes.

Course Book

You are advised to get hold of a copy of a reasonably up-to-date edition of one of the following:

Copies of the above are available from the John Rylands University Library and the UG Resource Centre.

Other recommended books:

  • Applied Operating System Concepts (1st edition), an earlier edition of the Silberschatz et al books. Check this link for further information by the authors.
  • Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, by Tanenbaum.
  • Operating Systems: internals and design principles, by Stallings (Info by the author).
  • Operating Systems (3rd edition), by Gary Nutt. (Info by the author).
  • Operating Systems Principles, by Bic and Shaw.

Copies of most of the above can be found in John Rylands University Library.

Resources on the web

Exam Papers from past years

(Note: this course was known as COMP20051 before Autumn 2010)