Introduction to Operating Systems

Introduction to Operating Systems is an undergraduate-level introduction to topics in operating systems including system calls, processes, threads, concurrency, CPU scheduling, synchronization, deadlocks, memory management, file systems, networking, distributed systems and security.

Course Activities

The graded activities for the course are assignments, projects, a midterm exam and a final exam.

Required Reading

Our main textbook is Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces (OSTEP). There are selected readings from other sources. All books in this class are free to students in a digital format either from the author’s website or through the library via O’Reilly for Higher Education.

[Arpaci-Dusseau18]

Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau. Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces, 2018. Description: This book covers the fundamental concepts of operating systems. Availability: It is available for free on the author’s website or you can buy a print version, visit https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/.

[Peterson11]

Larry L. Peterson and Bruce S. Davie. Computer Networks, 5th Edition, 2011. Description: We will have selected readings that cover the basic concepts of computer networking. Availability: The book is available online from the library via O’Reilly for Higher Education.

[Pfleeger15]

Charles P. Pfleeger, Shari Lawrence Pfleeger and Jonathan Margulies. Security in Computing, 2015. Description: We will have selected readings that cover operating systems security. Availability: The book is available online from the library via O’Reilly for Higher Education.

Online Resources

Compiler Explorer

AnimOS CPU-Scheduling