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CS330 - Introduction to Operating Systems

CS330 explores the principles, concepts, and design issues of modern operating systems. The course covers operating system structure, services, process management, threads, CPU scheduling, synchronization, memory management, virtual memory, mass storage, file-system interfaces, and file-system implementation. It also includes practical operating-system work through a course project.

Course project

I created and documented a CS330 operating-systems project for this course. You can view the portfolio entry and open the project here: Project portfolio · Project site · Repository

Course Information

Item Details
Course code CS330
Course title Introduction to Operating Systems
Credits/contact hours 3 credits
Prerequisites CS175 and CS210
Main textbook Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne, Operating System Concepts: With Java, 10th ed.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of CS330, students should be able to:

  1. Describe the objectives, major components, and functions of a modern operating system.
  2. Explain concepts related to processes, threads, scheduling, and synchronization.
  3. Apply memory management and virtual memory techniques to basic memory problems.
  4. Apply mass storage and file-system interface/implementation concepts.
  5. Demonstrate operating-system concepts through practical project work.

Course Content

  • Chapters 1-2 - OS Foundations and Services

    Introduction to operating systems, operating system objectives, components, services, system calls, APIs, and operating system structure.

  • Chapter 3 - Process Management

    Processes, process states, process control blocks, context switching, process creation, and process behavior.

  • Chapter 4 - Threads

    Threads, multithreading, user and kernel threads, thread models, and thread-related design issues.

  • Chapter 5 - CPU Scheduling

    Scheduling criteria and scheduling algorithms, including common preemptive and non-preemptive policies.

  • Chapter 6 - Synchronization

    Race conditions, critical sections, mutual exclusion, semaphores, monitors, and synchronization problems.

  • Chapter 8 - Memory Management

    Address binding, contiguous allocation, paging, segmentation, fragmentation, and memory allocation strategies.

  • Chapter 9 - Virtual Memory

    Demand paging, page replacement, thrashing, working sets, and virtual memory performance.

  • Chapter 10 - Mass Storage Structure

    Disk structure, disk scheduling, RAID, and storage management concepts.

  • Chapter 11 - File-System Interface

    File concepts, file attributes, directory structures, access methods, and protection.

  • Chapter 12 - File-System Implementation

    File-system layout, allocation methods, free-space management, and directory implementation.

  • Course Project

    Practical work applying operating-system concepts and tools.

Assessments

Assessment Weight
Final exam 40%
Major exam 20%
Quizzes 20%
Project 15%
Attendance and participation 5%

Current Site Coverage

Syllabus topic Current site material Status
Introduction and OS services Chapters 1-2 notes and slides Covered
Processes, threads, CPU scheduling, synchronization Chapters 3-6 notes, slides, and quizzes Covered
Memory management and virtual memory Chapters 8-9 notes, slides, and quiz support Covered
Mass storage structure Chapter 10 notes Covered
File-system interface and implementation Chapters 11-12 notes and slides Covered
Course project/practical work Project-related materials and supporting summaries Covered

Study Path

  1. Start with OS concepts and services.
  2. Study processes, threads, scheduling, and synchronization together.
  3. Move into memory management and virtual memory.
  4. Finish with storage and file-system topics.
  5. Use quizzes, formulas, cheat sheets, and the summary for revision.

Source

This overview was updated from the CS330 course syllabus and the current files in the CS330 section of this site.