Operating System Roadmap

Explore the core concepts of how computer operating systems manage hardware and software resources.

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Chapter Main Topic Content & Learning Activities Objectives & Deliverables
1 Operating System Overview
  • Concept, Main functions, and Components of an OS.
  • Computer systems & Operating system structure.
  • Understand the role and structure of an OS.
2 Processes and Threads
  • Process model, states, and management.
  • Operations on processes, Context switching.
  • Introduction to Threads.
  • Grasp the concepts of processes and threads.
3 Process Scheduling
  • Process characteristics and scheduling mechanisms.
  • Scheduling in batch, interactive, and real-time systems.
  • Thread scheduling.
  • Learn how the OS manages CPU time.
4 Inter-Process Communication
  • Need for IPC and related issues.
  • Shared resource mechanisms (Signal, Pipe, Shared Memory).
  • Message passing mechanisms (Socket, RPC, RMI).
  • Understand how processes communicate.
5 Process Synchronization
  • Concept of synchronization and the Critical Section problem.
  • Solutions: "Busy waiting" and "Sleep and wakeup".
  • Classic synchronization problems.
  • Solve problems of concurrent resource access.
6 Deadlock
  • Concept and necessary conditions for deadlock.
  • Resource allocation graph.
  • Methods for handling deadlock (prevention, avoidance, detection).
  • Understand and handle deadlock situations.
7 File System
  • General overview of files and file systems.
  • Low-level file implementation, Directory system.
  • Shared file protection, Semantic consistency, Error recovery.
  • Learn how data is stored and managed.
8 Memory Management
  • Basic concepts of memory management.
  • Continuous allocation model (Linker Loader, Base & Limit).
  • Non-continuous allocation model (Paging, Segmentation).
  • Virtual Memory.
  • Understand how the OS manages main memory.

Core Mindsets for Operating Systems

1. The OS is a Resource Manager

View the OS as an arbitrator for finite resources like CPU time, memory, and disk space. Its primary job is to allocate these resources efficiently and fairly among competing processes.

2. Concurrency is Deceptive

Things happen in parallel, creating complex interactions. Always be mindful of race conditions, synchronization, and deadlocks. The OS's role is to create order from this potential chaos.

3. Abstraction Hides Complexity

The OS provides clean, simple abstractions (like files and processes) to hide the messy details of the hardware. Appreciate that every simple system call has a lot of complexity under the hood.

4. Policies vs. Mechanisms

Distinguish between the "how" (mechanism, e.g., a priority queue for scheduling) and the "what" (policy, e.g., giving interactive users higher priority). Good design separates these concerns.