15-410, Operating System Design and Implementation

Welcome to the Spring 2012 edition of 15-410.

Project 2/3/4 Partner Registration Page, early access for early birds.

Auditing: this course is usually full, and we generally receive many more requests to audit than we can accept. If you wish to audit, please have your advisor contact us before the semester begins to discuss your educational goals.

Until the semester actually begins, here is a self-assessment/warm-up exercise. This exercise is mandatory for incoming 410 students who have not passed 15-213 and is not a bad way for all incoming students to get back up to speed.

The textbook is Operating System Concepts, by Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne. If you are buying a new book, it makes sense to get the new eighth edition (which should be available in CMU's bookstore) since the retail prices for the seventh and eighth editions are currently the same. If you are buying a used book, however, you will probably find the seventh and sixth editions cheaper. Either one may be used (what you get out of the textbook depends more on how much time you spend with it than on which edition you have). We will not cover all of the text, and some topics (such as synchronization) will be taught using additional material.

Rumor has it that the text is available (purchase or rental) as an e-book from at least one major e-book vendor. As we have no experience with this format, if you try it, please let us know whether you like it.

You may also find useful the 15-213 textbook, Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective; the K&R C book; and perhaps C Traps and Pitfalls. An excellent source of suggestions for programming style and structure is Brian Kernigan and Rob Pike's The Practice of Programming, especially the first few chapters.

Wind River graciously supports our educational mission by providing us with a free Simics license (more info).

Some of the library software used in this class is used under license (more info).

[Last modified Wednesday January 11, 2012]