Typical Single Semester Course

The following provides a selection of topics for a typical undergraduate course where the goal is to introduce students to the concepts of operating systems. We expect the typical undergraduate introductory operating systems course to partially cover the first 15 chapters, as well as Chapter 18 (Virtual Machines). Below are some recommendations what safely may be skipped yet still provide the student with a solid understanding of what operating systems are and what they do.

This text integrates three different APIs - POSIX (Linux/macOS/UNIX), Java, and to a lesser extent Windows. You may choose to cover just one of the APIs depending upon student experience. For those students familiar with C, we strongly encourage following the POSIX-based coverage of the text. For those more familiar with Java, we encourage you to use the Java API.

Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter can be covered fairly quickly. Sections 1.2 (Computer System Organization) and 1.3 (Computer System Architecture) can be skipped if students are familiar with those topics. Section 1.8 (Distributed Systems) can be omitted if you do not intend on covering networking. Section 1.11 (Free and Open-Source Operating Systems) may also be omitted.
Chapter 2: Operating System Structures
This chapter can be covered fairly quickly. Sections 2.7 (Operating System Design and Implementation), 2.9 (Building and Booting an Operating System), and 2.10 (Operating System Debugging) may be omitted if desired.
Chapter 3: Processes
This is an important chapter and provides the basis for many later topics. Some may choose to skip Section 3.7 (Examples of IPC Systems) as well as Section 3.8 (Communication in Client-Server Systems) may be skipped if desired.
Chapter 4: Threads & Concurrency
Section 4.3 (Multithreading Models) may only require covering the 1:1 model. Section 4.5 (Implicit Threading) may also be skipped. 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. If you do not intend on covering lower-level details, Section 6.4 (Hardware Support) may be omitted. 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. To save time, you may choose to cover sections 9.6 and 9.7 which cover Intel and ARMv8 architectures.
Chapter 10: Virtual Memory
Sections 10.7 (Memory Compression) and 10.8 (Allocating Kernel Memory) may be omitted if desired. Section 10.9 (Other Considerations) may be covered lightly as well.

Many users of the text cover the following five chapters on storage management very lightly. We highlight what we feel should be included in a typical introductory operating systems class.
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
Sections 13.4 (Protection) and 13.5 (Memory-Mapped Files) may be omitted.
Chapter 14: File-System Implementation
Sections 14.6 (Efficiency and Performance), 14.7 (Recovery), and 14.8 (The WAFL File System) may be omitted.
Chapter 15 File-System Internals
Sections 15.4 (File Sharing), 15.5 (Virtual File Systems), 15.6 (Remote File Systems), 15.7 (Consistency Semantics), and 15.8 (NFS) may be skipped.
Chapter 18 Virtual Machines
We encourage a light reading of this chapter even for introductory courses given the importance of virtual machines. Sections 18.7 (Examples) and 18.8 (Virtualization Research) can be skipped.