Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Unit

FIT3046 - Operating environments

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Information Technology
Offered	Gippsland First semester 2010 (Day) Gippsland First semester 2010 (Off-campus) Hong Kong First semester 2010 (Off-campus) Singapore First semester 2010 (Off-campus) South Africa First semester 2010 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Mr Shane Moore (Gippsland); Mr Neil Manson (South Africa)

Synopsis

Processes and threads: interprocess communication, scheduling. Deadlock: detection, prevention, avoidance. Memory management: allocation, swapping, virtual memory. Input/output principles and examples: disks, graphical user interfaces, network terminals. File systems: files, directories, disk space management. Security: authentication, cryptography, common attacks, principles of secure system administration. Case studies: Characteristics of major PC operating systems such as Linux and Windows.

Objectives

At the completion of this unit students will:

know the general purpose and functions of operating systems;
understand the hardware and software mechanisms used to carry out these functions;
be familiar with the principal differences between common major operating systems such as Windows and Linux;
be able to install new operating systems on PC hardware;
be willing to select operating systems based on their merits rather than their marketing.

Assessment

Examination (3 hours): 60%; In-semester assessment: 40%

Chief examiner(s)

Associate Professor Manzur Murshed

Contact hours

2 hrs lectures/wk, 2 hrs laboratories/wk