Republic Polytechnic School of Information and Communications Technology C226 Operating System Concepts. Module Curriculum

Transcription

1 Republic Polytechnic School of Information and Communications Technology C6 Operating System Concepts Module Curriculum Module Description: This module examines the fundamental components of single computer systems as well as the major operating systems of today (both commercial and Open Source). In this module, you will gain an understanding of how they are implemented and the features they provide. Module Objectives: At the end of this module, students should be able to: 1. Recognise and appreciate the need for operating systems in today s computing devices and appliances.. Understand the various components that make up a typical personal computer system, how they interact with each other and the role operating systems play in these systems. 3. Identify ways of improving the system performance through the understanding of how the operating system manages processes 4. Understand the purpose of memory hierarchy and the trade-offs between the various memory storage devices. 5. Understand the need for a file system, how they are accessed and the common file systems available. 6. Understand the links between the applications programming software, the operating systems and the hardware components. 7. Appreciate basic privacy issues that individuals face and understand the various protection and security mechanisms used in operating systems. 8. (Set up of Microsoft Windows XP, Xubuntu and dual-boot systems). 9. Perform basic troubleshooting and recovery of computer systems from viruses, logic bombs, spyware/malware and Trojan Horses. Module Assessment This module is assessed as follows: Daily Grade 50% Understanding Tests 50 %

2 Weekly Module Schedule: Week Key Concepts Problem Title Learning Objectives 1 Operating Systems Concepts Why an Operating System? Understand the various roles of an operating system. What are the differences between application software and an operating system. Major OS vendors in the computing industry Understand the relationships between the application software, the operating system and the hardware. Computer Hardware 3 Microprocessors (Heart of the Matter) 4 Memory Management Weird Al s Super-PC How have computers changed My Computer Has Amnesia The various components of a computer system, how they interact with each other and their use in the operating system. Using the Von Neumann Architecture to identify and explain various components in a computer. Understand binary values and their relationship to the computer. Understand the function of how the Operating System uses device drivers to communicate with the various devices in the computer. Understand the function of the microprocessor Understand the difference between dual-core and multi-core technology, and how CPU architecture and clock speed affect Instructions per second. Comparing the latest dual/quad core CPUs from the various vendors (Intel & AMD) and understanding the significance and difference between a 3-bit and a 64-bit processor. Basic memory management: - swap space - virtual memory

3 Understand the basic concept of memory management Understand the differences between paging and swapping Understand what is virtual memory and how it works 5 Memory Storage 6 Disk and File Systems Which Memory is better Why can t I see my files Understand and differentiate between the various levels of memory hierarchies, ie Primary and Secondary memory. Understand the purpose of caching Ability to appreciate and evaluate the tradeoffs of each type of memory. Purpose of and Trade-offs between the various memory components, eg Volatile vs non-volatile Understand the process where a raw disk is prepared for use with an operating system. Ability to understand the need and identify the various file systems (ext, ext3, FAT3, NTFS, HFS+ ) and their use in the various operating systems. Understand in a file system, the need for naming, file extensions, permissions, how files are accessed. Ability to use commands to navigate the file system hierarchy. 7 Device Management and Devices The Spyglass Understanding the role of the controller Common I/O devices and controllers Understand and appreciate the

4 8 Communications Buses Bus Express function and purpose of device drivers in an operating system Ability to differentiate among the various classes of device drivers Understand how the device manager works with each device driver to provide different layers of abstraction. Understand the concept and purpose of a bus in a computer. Ability to identify the various types of buses and its purpose. (PCI, SCSI, USB, IDE, FireWire, etc) Understand throughput and calculate data rate Various types of buses (PCI, SCSI, USB, IDE, SAS, FireWire, etc.) 9 Process Management 10 Case Study I: Windows Vista Bad Services The New Beginning Understand that processes are basically programs in execution Understand how the operating systems manage processes Identify various process states Understand thread concepts and computer multitasking. Understand what is context switching and how a process scheduler works Identify ways to improve performance Understand the steps required to install the Windows operating system on a new computer. Device identification and installation of device drivers Installation of applications. Understand the requirement for formatting and partitioning a disk before installation. Identify hardware components and search for correct drivers to install

5 11 Case Study : Linux Free Software to enable hardware inside of the operating system Installation of Xubuntu Identify the different layers in a typical Linux Distro. Exploring Linux processes and device drivers Perform simple navigation using the shell or terminal in Linux. Perform common tasks with Linux such as editing files, creating files, using the internet, etc. Identify the differences in the file system used as compared to Windows. Ability to explain how Linux implements its security. Appreciate the significance of the different licensing schemes. 1 Programming Running Programs Link between the application software, OS and hardware Program interpreter vs. compiler Understand and ability to explain what a program is Understand the process of compiling a program Understand what is meant by runtime error Ability to describe how to execute a program in the command prompt Understand and ability to explain the purpose of the PATH variables Understand what libraries are and how they are linked (static & dynamic) Understand what are DLLs and SO Ability to explain what a registry key is and the purpose of batch files 13 Booting Who's booting Exploring the boot-up sequence, and bootstrap loader.

6 14 Security Who has the permission Common boot loaders such as GRUB and NTLDR, etc. Understand the essential processes involved in booting Understand what happens when a computer powers up Understand the processes involved in booting up an OS Understand about boot loaders and the different types of boot loaders Understand what is a boot.ini file and the content in the boot.ini file Understand how to create and install dual/multiple operating systems on a single computer. Three general security issues and corresponding threats Protection mechanisms in OS: - Protection domains - Access Control Lists - Capability Lists 15 Attacks from an OS point of view Who attacked my computer? Understand the need for security in ensuring data confidentiality and system availability. Understand and identify the various protection mechanisms used in operating systems such as Protection Domains and Access Control Lists Understand how to implement File- Access Security Understand how to implement user and group permissions for files Understand process privileges and file ownership Attacks from inside the system: - Trojan Horses, Login Spoofs, Logic Bombs, Trap Doors, Buffer Overflow, etc Attacks from outside the system:

7 - Companion viruses, Executable Program viruses, Boot sector viruses, etc Understand what is a computer virus and how it works Understand what a cracker can do if he has back door access via Trojan horses or virus programs Understand how anti-virus software works Understand how patching to Windows XP SP helps to protects your system 16 Embedded Devices What is embedded inside this device The computer as non-laptop or non-desktop device: - PDA - Mobile phone (Android SDK) Understand what is a embedded system Understand the features and functions of embedded devices Understand the use of development tools for creating apps for embedded devices

8 Module Syllabus: Learning Objectives: 1. Recognise and appreciate the need for operating systems in today s computing devices and appliances.. Understand the various components that make up a typical personal computer system, how they interact with each other and the role operating systems play in these systems. 3. Identify ways of improving the system performance through the understanding of how the operating system manages processes 4. Understand the purpose of memory hierarchy and the trade-offs between the various memory storage devices. 5. Understand the need for a file system, how they are accessed and the common file systems available. 6. Understand the links between the applications programming software, the operating systems and the hardware components. 7. Appreciate basic privacy issues that individuals face and understand the various protection and security mechanisms used in operating systems. 8. (Set up of Microsoft Windows XP, Xubuntu and dual-boot systems). 9. Perform basic troubleshooting and recovery of computer systems from viruses, logic bombs, spyware/malware and Trojan Horses. Allocated time per day (One day-one problem PBL pedagogy) Module Coverage Discussions Resource Formal Lab in Study gathering Experiment Cluster and team work Introduction to Operating systems Computer Architecture classification of components. Microprocessor architecture Memory Architecture Memory management - paging and swapping, virtual memory. Advantages of caching 4 Primary and Secondary. The various characteristics of types of memory, Trade off between different types of memory 4 File Systems File types with relation to operating systems File system commands and navigation Device Management

9 The role of the device driver. I/O Devices and controllers System buses Throughput and data rate calculation Describing how the various types of buses work Common Operating Systems Windows Vista Installation Xubuntu Installation Programs Application Software Static vs Dynamic link libraries. Program execution Bootstrap Loaders The booting process Introducing various boot loaders Installing multiple operating systems. Security in Operating Systems Access Control Lists User permissions, process privileges and group permissions File Access Security Attacks on an Operating System Attacks within a system Buffer overflows, trapdoors, Trojan horses. Attacks from outside of a system. Viruses / Worms Operating Systems on Embedded Devices Understanding operating system on an embedded devices Exploring various embedded devices Total = 16 Problems = 96 hours 6 3 4

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