Computer equipment and operating systems
J Ceddia
6 points * 4 hours per week * First semester * Caulfield
Review of computer architecture: address modes, processor modes, memory protection schemes, virtual memory, parallel processors. Advanced design issues: general vs special purpose registers, orthogonal and complex instruction sets, microcode, caches and pipelines. RISC. Review of operating system concepts: architecture, components, concurrent processes, process communication, polling interrupt driven processes, scheduling, I/O, multiuser systems, security and privileges. Current operating systems: widely used operating systems, such as UNIX, OS/MVS, OS/2, VAX/VMS. Operating system extensions: X-windows, Microsoft Windows, Presentation Manager, Macintosh user interface. Standardisation activities: Posix, X-open, SAA.
Assessment
Examination (2 hours): 50% * Practical work: 50%
Prescribed texts
Tanenbaum A Structured computer organization 3rd edn, Prentice-Hall, 1990
Tanenbaum A Operating systems, design and implementation Prentice-Hall, 1987