This unit has been introduced as part of the 2014 Course Architectures review of the FIT undergraduate degrees. FIT2100 is a core unit for the new BSE and BInfoTech major in Computer Networks Security degrees being introduced in 2016, and replaces FIT2070.

October 2016: Add FIT1031 as an alternative prerequisite for students in transition from old course structures.

Amended time ratio of tutorials and labs to improve achievable learning outcomes. To be implemented S2 2017.

Introduced for course architecture programs. Effective semester 1/2016.

27 March 2017: Amended the examination component to satisfy the new Assessment in Coursework Units: Examination Procedures. To be implemented S2 2017.

27 March 2017: Added Malaysia as the location of offering as per Monash Handbook 2017.

26/06/2018: Admin - updating assessment to remove 30 minute reading and noting time from the exam on behalf of the CE.

30th May 2019: CE - Amended objective #3 as past objective was aligned with units dealing with distributed / parallel systems i.e. FIT3142/3143, and did not reflect how operating systems are taught or the existing courseware. Amended objective #4 as the past objective inverted the focus of the unit, as the typical and proper focus should be on teaching students how to enhance application robustness, performance and function by exploiting operating systems services, rather than trying to apply highly specialised internal operating system algorithms in other programming applications. Synopsis amended to remove the previously state "development of new resource management strategies" that is not part of any established operating systems introductory unit. Change to be introduced S2 2019.

20/9/2019: Admin - updating exam duration to include additional 10 minutes as per University requirement.

4/5/2020: As the MSA course 4307 Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences is in teach-out, the MSA offering of this unit has been re-coded to FZA2100 effective Semester 2, 2020. These units will be managed by South Africa and therefore no separate Monatar entries will be made

01/10/2020 Admin: Update to include new assessment and teaching approach fields as per Handbook requirements.

10/11/2020: CE - Increase in weekly tutorial hours, for implementation 2021. FIT2100 replaced FIT2070 in 2017 but with significantly expanded learning outcomes, including C language programming. In 2018 two additional consulting hours were added to the fortnightly tutorials by the previous CE as students were unable to cover required tutorial content in 1 hour. In practice these consulting hours were used to extend the tutorial to 3 hours. This change formalises the 3 hour tutorial arrangement used in practice since 2018.

07/09/2021: Revamping of Engineering First Common Year, from ENG1003 to ENG1103. Effective semester 1, 2022

09/09/2021: Admin - fixing prereqs to add back the existing prereq of ENG1003 and remove old prereq FIT1031 (as advised by SAS).

This unit is a level 2 core unit in the BSE and BInfoTech major in Computer Networks Security degrees. Its purpose is to teach basic principles and components of an operating systems, compare and contrast various strategies used for processor scheduling, memory management and I/O device management. Examples of current operating systems and their implementation will be used as examples.

At the completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. analyse and evaluate various strategies used by an operating system in managing the system resources and running applications efficiently;
2. analyse and identify parameters that can improve the performance of multi-programming operating systems;
3. apply synchronisation techniques in the development of applications, using operating system services; and
4. apply system calls in the design of applications, to improve application performance, robustness or functionality.

020117

This unit will provide students with the knowledge of how a multi-programming, multi-user operating systems operates and it manages and allocate resources to different applications. Students will be able to compare and contrast various resource management allocation strategies. Students will develop and implement code to understand and make use of operating system services.

The topics covered will include an introduction to C Programming which is heavily used in development of operating systems, operating system structure and services, multi-programming processes, CPU scheduling, memory management, device management, synchronisation, deadlocks, virtual memory and file systems.

Recommended resources

Recommended Text(s):

Operating Systems

• William Stallings (2015). Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (8th Edtition) , Prentice Hall.
• Andrew S. Tanenbaum, and Herbert Bos (2014). Modern Operating System (4th Edition), Pearson.
• Abraham Silberschatz, Peter B. Galvin, and Greg Gagne (2018). Operating System Concepts (10th Edition) , Wiley. C Programming for Unix/Linux

• Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie (1988). The C Programming Language (2nd Edition), Prentice Hall.
• David A. Curry (1989). C on the UNIX System (Internet Edition) , O'Reilly.
• David A. Curry (1996). UNIX Systems Programming for SVR4 (Internet Edition) , O'Reilly.
• W. Richard Stevens, and Stephen A. Rago (2013). Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment (Third Edition) , Addison-Wesley.
• K. N. King (2008). C Programming: A Modern Approach (Second Edition) , W. W. Norton.
• Ben Klemens (2014). 21st Century C: C Tips from the New School (2nd Edition) , O'Reilly.

{b\ Technological requirements}

A specified Virtual Machine environment is made available for students to download and install. The Virtual Machine environment may be installed by students either onto a removable storage device for use on computers in the university labs, or on students' own devices. The virtual machine environment contains specialised software including a consistent operating system environment for exploration in the unit, C compiler, editor and debugging tools.

Students are strongly encouraged to bring their own devices (laptops) to the practical and tutorial sessions with access the virtual machine environment.

On-campus

Lectures, tutorials and laboratory-based classes

These teaching and learning approaches provide facilitated learning, practical exploration and peer learning.

• The lectures define the formal content of the unit, and will be used as the initial point of reference for unit knowledge outcomes. This knowledge will be built upon by the tutorials and laboratories in order to address the higher level objectives relating to skills and applications.
• The tutorials are designed to introduce the knowledge and skills of a low-level programming language which are required for the completion of the laboratory sessions. Tutorials provide students with the opportunity to explore various programming elements which are essential for the implementation of operating system concepts.
• The practicals or laboratories are aimed to provide students with the hands-on experience of operating system functions and parameters. Each lab is offered as a partially developed set of programming exercises. Students need to understand the working of the programs and develop extensions to meet the requirements. The lab work is a required part of the assessment component. Through lab activities, students get to interact with each others in the lab as a means of peer learning.

Examination (2 hours and 10 minutes): 50%; In-semester assessment: 50%

1. Programming Assignment Part A: 15% - ULO ?
2. Mid-Semester Test: 10% - ULO ?
3. Programming Assignment Part B: 15% - ULO ?
4. Tutorial and Practical Assessment: 10% - ULO ?
5. Examination: 50% - ULO ?

Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

(b.) Additional requirements (all students):

Lectures followed by tutorials and then laboratories in any given week.

Access to a Unix/Linux server with C compiler will be desirable. Lab machines to provide a Unix/Linux SOE.

One of FIT1047 or ENG1003 or ENG1103