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CIT315Sciences3 Unitsintermediate

Operating System

This course introduces the principles of operating systems, serving as a liaison between computer users and hardware. It explores process management, concurrency, and synchronization, including race conditions and deadlocks. The course also covers memory management schemes, algorithms, and techniques for resource allocation and memory addressing. Students will gain knowledge of process states, context switching, interrupt handling, multithreading, and memory management strategies, equipping them with a comprehensive understanding of operating system concepts and their practical applications.

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208h
Study Time
13
Weeks
16h
Per Week
basic
Math Level
Course Keywords
Operating SystemProcess ManagementMemory ManagementSynchronizationMultithreading

Course Overview

Everything you need to know about this course

Course Difficulty

Intermediate Level
Builds on foundational knowledge
65%
intermediate
➕
Math Level
Basic Math
📖
Learning Type
Theoretical Focus

Course Topics

Key areas covered in this course

1

Process Management

2

Concurrency

3

Multithreading

4

Process Synchronization

5

Memory Management

6

Caching

Total Topics6 topics

Requirements

Knowledge and skills recommended for success

Basic computer architecture

Data structures and algorithms

Programming in C/C++

💡 Don't have all requirements? Don't worry! Many students successfully complete this course with basic preparation and dedication.

Assessment Methods

How your progress will be evaluated (3 methods)

assignments

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

tutor-marked assessments

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

final examination

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

Career Opportunities

Explore the career paths this course opens up for you

System Administrator

Apply your skills in this growing field

Operating System Developer

Apply your skills in this growing field

Software Engineer

Apply your skills in this growing field

Cloud Computing Engineer

Apply your skills in this growing field

Embedded Systems Engineer

Apply your skills in this growing field

Industry Applications

Real-world sectors where you can apply your knowledge

Cloud ComputingEmbedded SystemsMobile ComputingData CentersEnterprise Software Development

Study Schedule Beta

A structured 13-week journey through the course content

Week
1

Module 1: Process Management

6h

Unit 1: Processes and State

2 study hours
  • •Understand the definition of a process and its various states (new, running, ready, blocked, terminated).
  • •Learn how the operating system manages processes and allocates resources.
  • •Study the Process Control Block (PCB) and its role in process management.

Unit 2: Context Switching

2 study hours
  • •Explore the concept of context switching and its importance in multitasking.
  • •Understand the steps involved in context switching and its overhead.
  • •Learn about procedures and system calls and their role in process execution.

Unit 3: Interrupts and Interrupts Handler

2 study hours
  • •Understand the concept of interrupts and their types (hardware and software).
  • •Learn about interrupt handlers and their role in servicing interrupt requests.
  • •Study interrupt masking and unmasking techniques.
Week
2

Module 2: Concurrency – Multithreading

6h

Unit 1: Threads & Multithreading

2 study hours
  • •Explore the concept of threads and multithreading.
  • •Understand the benefits of multithreading in improving performance and concurrency.
  • •Learn about POSIX threads and the Pthreads API.

Unit 2: Types of Threads

2 study hours
  • •Study different multithreading models (many-to-one, one-to-one, many-to-many).
  • •Learn about thread creation and termination techniques.
  • •Understand the differences between threads and processes.

Unit 3: Threads Data Structure and Lifecycle

2 study hours
  • •Explore the thread control block (TCB) and its contents.
  • •Understand the thread lifecycle and its various states (new, ready, running, blocked, terminated).
  • •Study thread state transitions.
Week
3

Module 3: Process Synchronization

6h

Unit 1: Race condition, Critical Region and Mutual Exclusion

2 study hours
  • •Define race condition and its causes.
  • •Understand the concept of critical regions and mutual exclusion.
  • •Learn techniques to resolve race conditions.

Unit 2: Deadlocks

2 study hours
  • •Describe the concept of deadlock and its conditions.
  • •Learn about deadlock detection and avoidance techniques.
  • •Study deadlock prevention strategies.

Unit 3: Synchronization

2 study hours
  • •Explore process synchronization techniques.
  • •Understand the use of semaphores and monitors in solving synchronization problems.
Week
4

Module 3: Process Synchronization

6h

Unit 4: Synchronization Problems

6 study hours
  • •Study various synchronization problems, including the producer-consumer problem, the readers-writers problem, and the dining philosophers problem.
  • •Learn how to solve these problems using synchronization primitives.
Week
5

Module 4: Memory Management

6h

Unit 1: Memory Swapping

3 study hours
  • •Describe memory swapping techniques.
  • •Understand the concepts of swap in and swap out.
  • •Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of memory swapping.

Unit 2: Memory Partition

3 study hours
  • •Explore contiguous and non-contiguous memory allocation techniques.
  • •Understand memory partitioning and its types (fixed, variable, dynamic).
  • •Study partition allocation methods (first fit, best fit, worst fit, next fit).
Week
6

Module 4: Memory Management

6h

Unit 3: Virtual Memory

6 study hours
  • •Explain the concept of memory segmentation and paging.
  • •Understand the differences between segmentation and paging.
  • •Learn how to solve memory allocation issues in non-contiguous memory spaces.
Week
7

Module 4: Memory Management

6h

Unit 4: Caching and Thrashing

6 study hours
  • •Understand the importance of cache memory.
  • •Learn about cache concepts, memory hierarchy, and memory cache lookup techniques.
  • •Study the advantages of cache memory in improving system performance.
Week
8

Module 4: Memory Management

6h

Unit 5: Replacement Policies

6 study hours
  • •Find out the cause of thrashing in operating systems.
  • •Demonstrate policies to address thrashing issues.
  • •Study various page replacement algorithms (FIFO, Optimal, LRU).
Week
9

Module 1: Process Management

6h

Unit 1: Processes and State

6 study hours
  • •Review process management concepts, including process states, context switching, and interrupt handling.
  • •Practice solving problems related to process scheduling and resource allocation.
Week
10

Module 2: Concurrency – Multithreading

6h

Unit 1: Threads & Multithreading

6 study hours
  • •Review concurrency and multithreading concepts.
  • •Practice writing simple multithreaded programs using Pthreads API.
  • •Solve problems related to thread synchronization and communication.
Week
11

Module 3: Process Synchronization

6h

Unit 1: Race condition, Critical Region and Mutual Exclusion

6 study hours
  • •Review process synchronization concepts, including race conditions, deadlocks, and synchronization primitives.
  • •Practice solving synchronization problems using semaphores and monitors.
  • •Analyze and compare different synchronization techniques.
Week
12

Module 4: Memory Management

6h

Unit 1: Memory Swapping

6 study hours
  • •Review memory management concepts, including memory swapping, partitioning, and virtual memory.
  • •Practice solving memory allocation problems using different allocation methods.
  • •Analyze the performance of different memory management techniques.
Week
13

Module 4: Memory Management

6h

Unit 4: Caching and Thrashing

6 study hours
  • •Review caching concepts and replacement policies.
  • •Practice solving problems related to cache memory and thrashing.
  • •Analyze the impact of cache memory on system performance.

This study schedule is in beta and may not be accurate. Please use it as a guide and consult the course outline for the most accurate information.

Course PDF Material

Read the complete course material as provided by NOUN.

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Study Tips & Exam Preparation

Expert tips to help you succeed in this course

1

Create concept maps linking process management, concurrency, and memory management.

2

Practice solving synchronization problems using semaphores and monitors.

3

Review memory allocation algorithms and their performance characteristics.

4

Focus on understanding the causes and solutions for deadlocks and thrashing.

5

Study past exam papers and tutor-marked assignments to identify key concepts and problem-solving techniques.

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