Date: Mon, 02 Dec 1996 14:47:40 GMT Server: NCSA/1.4.2 Content-type: text/html CS451 Course Intro

CSE 451
Course Introduction

This is a course about the use, design, and implementation of operating systems. My goal in teaching this course is to help you understand:

Why should someone take this course?

Have you ever considered why your PC crashes about once a day and why workstations don't ? Or how programs access much more memory than there is available physically on the machine ? Maybe you know all these and are curious as to what happens "under the covers" with Windows, Unix, NT, and other operating systems. The operating system acts as a resource manager for the computer and if you want to know what kinds of decisions it makes and why, then this course is for you.

Who are we and what do we bring to this course?

I'm a faculty member in the computer science department here. (Check out my home page for more details about what I do when I'm not teaching.) My area of research is in operating systems and their interaction with compilers and computer architecture.

Your TA is a graduate student with the department. Click here to see your TA's homepage.

My attitude about teaching and learning

My job is to come prepared to lecture every day, present and clarify material that I feel is important, and guide you all through a series of "stories" that are intended to convey the basic points of the course. People tell me that I'm pretty good at conveying concepts and walking through complicated material with examples and analogies. People also tell me that I'm terrible "on-my-feet" when I have to add, subtract, multiply, or divide, or when I need to remember where the semicolon goes. I use slides so that I can work out those details in advance. Nevertheless, I will make mistakes in lecture and on the handouts. I'm grateful to anyone who can point these mistakes out. I'll correct them as quickly as I can.

Your Job

Teaching is my responsibility. Learning is yours. There are mechanical things that I do in order to teach effectively (example, using slides, exams, homeworks, soliciting feedback), and there are mechanical things that you should do to learn effectively. I can pretty much guarantee that if you operate using a few simple guidelines you will get a high grade in this course: That's about it. Basically, we've each got a job to do this quarter with one another. Let's try to make it as productive and effective as possible.

Click here to go on to the actual course syllabus.