This document provides information about an Operating Systems course offered at the University of Texas at San Antonio in Spring 2011. The course will cover principles of operating systems theory and practice, including fundamental concepts such as processes, threads, synchronization, communication, and distributed systems. It will be taught on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-3 PM. The instructor is Prosunjit Biswas and evaluation will be based on homework, quizzes, a final exam, projects, and attendance. Required textbooks are listed.

1. University of Texas at San
Antonio
Operating System Hours M,W 2:00-3:00 PM Spring, 2011
Contact person Prosunjit Biswas
Position Teaching Assistant
Contact hours: By appointment
Office phone: 210 548 8883
E-mail: Prosun.csedu@gmail.com
Course Web page: cs.utsa.edu/student/~pbiswas
Prerequisites: Undergraduate Operating System CS 3065
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course covers the principles of operating systems theory and practice as well as distributed
operating systems. Fundamental concepts such as processes and threads, synchronization and
concurrency, communication, remote method invocation, security, distributed file systems and name
services will be presented
COURSE OBJECTIVES
• Enhance the understanding for the key operating system concepts (such as process, thread and
memory management);
• Develop an understanding of distributed systems and the important issues in their design;
• Develop a working knowledge of the infrastructure required to support distributed systems
(inter-process communication and internetworking);
• Understand how applications are evolving to use distributed system support;
• Improve system-development and technical writing skills;
• Learn and/or improve team work and oral discussion skills;
COURSE TOPICS
1. Process and memory management:
2. Networks and Communication
3. Security
4. Advanced Operating system
EVALUATION AND GRADING
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2. University of Texas at San
Antonio
1. Homework 20% You have to present the assigned homework on last working day of
every week.
2. Quizzes 10% There will be two quizzes best of which will be counted.
3. Final exam 30% The final exam will be comprehensive and entirely conceptual.
4. Attendance 10% Expect you all achieve this points.
5 Projects 30% You will be given 2/3 projects on course topics.
TOTAL 100%
1 No early and makeup exams will be given except with university sanctioned excuses.
No late submission of projects will be accepted except with prior instructor consent.
Reading the material prior to class and participation in the class discussion is highly encouraged.
Assignment for the final letter grade will base on the following ranges: A: >= 90% , B: >=
80% , C: >=70% ,D: >=60% ,F: <60%
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS
• Required textbook: Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms, 2nd edition. by Andrew S.
Tanenbaum and Maarten Van Steen (TS); ISBN: 0-13-239227-5
• Recommended for reference: Operating System Concepts, by Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
(SGG); ISBN: 0-471-69466-5 Recommended for reference: Distributed Systems: Concepts and
Design 4th ed. by G. Coulouris, J. Dollimore and T. Kindberg (CDK); ISBN: 0-321-26354-5
CLASSROOM RULES OF CONDUCT
1. Turn off cell phones.
2. Food and beverages are not permitted in the classroom.
3. Class lab time is expected to be spent on lab work. Lab time is not free time.
4. Participate fully and share your ideas. Share “air time” with other students.
5. Check the blackboard for course instruction on the fly.
COURSE SCHEDULE PLAN
DATE DAY TOPIC/ACTIVITY
Feb 1 Mon Introduction to Operating System Ref Book : SGG
Feb 3 Wed Process Management Ref Book : SGG
Feb 7 Mon Process Management Application , Homework
Feb 10 Wed Memory Management
Feb 14 Mon Memory management Application & Simulation , 1st Project
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3. University of Texas at San
Antonio
COURSE SCHEDULE PLAN
Feb 20 Wed Network & Communication
Feb 20 Wed Network & Communication, Homework
Feb 2 Wed Network & Communication
Feb 28 Mon Review
March 2 Wed Final Exam
ONLINE RESOURCES:
1. http://freevideolectures.com/Course/2398/Operating-Systems-and-System-Programming-
Fall-2009
2. http://www.learnerstv.com/Free-Computers-Video-lectures-ltv033-Page1.htm
3. http://www.cosmolearning.com/courses/operating-systems-and-system-
programming-326/video-lectures/
Note: The course schedule plan, course material and all others related to this course is subject to change.
In such case you will be notified before the change is taken to action.
Acknowledgement: The content of this syllabus is prepared with help from the syllabus of Prof. Dakai
Zhu of UTSA. The design format is adapted from the Internet.
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