Advanced Single Semester Course

The following is a selection of topics for an undergraduate or graduate operating systems course covering advanced issues. Determining what content to involve in an advanced class can be  a difficult task as quite often the background constituting operating system fundamentals varies widely. However, it is our experience that introductory courses generally cover material through chapter 15 (File Systems). You may discover that you will need to adjust what we recommend in earlier chapters based upon the experiences students bring into your class. The projects at the end of certain chapters make excellent exercises.

Below are recommendations for the first 19 chapters of the text. We have attempted to offer solutions that are flexible enough allowing instructors to tailor the material based upon the specific backgrounds of students and goals of the class. We suggest covering either the Linux or Windows 10 case studies to complement the material.

• Chapter 1: Introduction
  This chapter can be covered fairly quickly depending upon the background of the students.
  
  
• Chapter 2: Operating System Structures
  This chapter can be covered fairly quickly depending upon the background of the students. 
  
  
• Chapter 3: Processes
  This is an important chapter and provides the basis for many later topics. Some may choose to skip  Section 3.8 (Communication in Client-Server Systems) if networking is not covered.
  
  
• Chapter 4: Threads & Concurrency
  Section 4.3 (Multithreading Models) may only require covering the 1:1 model. Section 4.6 (Threading Issues) can be covered lightly.
  
  
• Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling
  Sections 5.6 (Real-Time Scheduling) and 5.8 (Algorithm Evaluation) may be omitted if desired.
   
  
• Chapter 6:  Synchronization Tools
  Section 6.3 (Peterson's Solution) may be omitted if you do not intend on covering software solutions to the critical section problem. Sections 6.7 (Monitors)  may be omitted as well.
  
  
• Chapter 7 Synchronization Examples
  You may choose to cover either Section 7.3 (POSIX Synchronization) or 7.4 (Synchronization in Java) based upon the programming environment you are using.
  
  
• Chapter 8: Deadlocks
  You may only want to cover Sections 8.1 through 8.4.
  
  
• Chapter 9: Main Memory
  We encourage you to cover this entire chapter.
  
  
• Chapter 10: Virtual Memory
  Section 10.9 (Other Considerations) may be covered lightly.
  
  Many users of the text cover the following five chapters on storage management very lightly.
  
  
• Chapter 11: Mass-Storage Structure
  Section 11.4 (Error Detection and Correction) may be skipped. Sections 11.5 (Storage Device Management) and 11.6 (Swap Space Management) may be covered lightly. Section 11.7 (Storage Attachment), and 11.8 (RAID Structure) can be omitted.
  
  
• Chapter 12: I/O Systems
  Section 12.1 and 12.2 may be omitted if students have an understanding of I/O hardware. Section 12.6 (STREAMS) may be omitted. Remaining sections may be covered lightly if time is running short.
  
  
• Chapter 13: File-System Interface
  Section 13.4 (Protection) may be omitted.
  
  
• Chapter 14: File-System Implementation
  Section 14.8 (The WAFL File System) may be omitted.
  
  
• Chapter 15 File-System Internals
  Sections 15.6 (Remote File Systems), 15.7 (Consistency Semantics), and 15.8 (NFS)  may be skipped.
  
  
• Chapter 16 Security
  We recommend covering this chapter in its entirety in an advanced operating systems class.
  
  
• Chapter 17 Protection
  We recommend covering this chapter in its entirety in an advanced operating systems class.
  
  
• Chapter 18 Virtual Machines
  Section 18.8 (Virtualization Research) can be skipped.
  
  
• Chapter 19 Networks and Distributed Systems
  If students have not been exposed to networking, we recommend covering this chapter in an advanced operating systems class.