Students

COMP2291 – Operating Systems

2023 – Session 2, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Lecturer and Unit Convenor
Damian Jurd
damian.jurd@mq.edu.au
Lecturer
Richard Han
richard.han@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
COMP1010 or COMP125
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
COMP6291
Unit description Unit description

This unit will introduce the concept of an operating system and describe its software architecture and interaction with modern computer hardware. The unit will cover topics on resource management of the central processing unit (CPU), memory, storage, network communication, and Input/Output (I/O) devices. Students will learn concepts such as multitasking, processes, address spaces, isolation, scheduling, concurrency, fairness, multithreading, synchronization, deadlock, virtual memory, interrupts, computer architecture, signals, kernels, user-space, file systems, the layered network stack, security, and virtualisation. The performance tradeoffs in the design of various components of the operating system will be discussed.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Demonstrate an ability to apply resource management concepts and principles to application design and execution (CPU, memory, storage/files, network/I/O, processes).
  • ULO2: Develop software programs that support concurrency and multi-threading.
  • ULO3: Develop a simple device driver that demonstrates the connection between operating systems and hardware.
  • ULO4: Explain the structure/architecture and function of an Operating System.
  • ULO5: Demonstrate an understanding and ramifications of security and fault isolation.
  • ULO6: Demonstrate an understanding of virtualisation concepts.

General Assessment Information

Requirements to pass the unit

To pass this unit you must:

  • Attempt all assessments, and
  • Achieve a final unit total mark equal to or greater than 50%

Late Assessment Submission Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical concern. For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, please apply for Special Consideration.

Assessments where Late Submissions will be accepted

  • Assignment (Week 7) - YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
  • Assignment (Week 13) - YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
  • Mid-semester exam - NO, unless Special Consideration is Granted
  • Final exam - NO, unless Special Consideration is Granted
  • Quizzes - NO, unless Special Consideration is Granted

Special Consideration

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment.

Written Assessments: If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the written assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through ask.mq.edu.au.

Weekly practice-based tasks: To pass the unit you need to demonstrate ongoing development of skills and application of knowledge in 6 out of 9 of the weekly practical classes. If you miss a weekly practical class due to a serious, unavoidable and significant disruption, contact your convenor ASAP as you may be able to attend another class that week. If it is not possible to attend another class, you should still contact your convenor for access to class material to review in your own time.

Note that a Special Consideration should only be applied for if you miss more than three of the weekly practical classes.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Quiz 10% No Weekly
Mid-semester exam 20% No Week 7
Final exam 20% No Exam Period
Assignment 50% No Weeks 7 and 13

Quiz

Assessment Type 1: Quiz/Test
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: Weekly
Weighting: 10%

 

The Quiz is an in-class test. It is a formative assessment that can be used to measure students’ knowledge and comprehension of unit materials. Quiz Question types include multiple choice, matching items, true/false, short answer and many more. Quizzes allow for formative assessment feedback on basic conceptual competence and therefore usually span multiple learning outcomes.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate an ability to apply resource management concepts and principles to application design and execution (CPU, memory, storage/files, network/I/O, processes).
  • Demonstrate an understanding and ramifications of security and fault isolation.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of virtualisation concepts.

Mid-semester exam

Assessment Type 1: Examination
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Week 7
Weighting: 20%

 

An examination allows us to individually and securely assess student's mastery of the coursework material.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate an ability to apply resource management concepts and principles to application design and execution (CPU, memory, storage/files, network/I/O, processes).
  • Develop software programs that support concurrency and multi-threading.
  • Develop a simple device driver that demonstrates the connection between operating systems and hardware.
  • Explain the structure/architecture and function of an Operating System.
  • Demonstrate an understanding and ramifications of security and fault isolation.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of virtualisation concepts.

Final exam

Assessment Type 1: Examination
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Exam Period
Weighting: 20%

 

An examination allows us to individually and securely assess student's mastery of the coursework material.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate an ability to apply resource management concepts and principles to application design and execution (CPU, memory, storage/files, network/I/O, processes).
  • Develop software programs that support concurrency and multi-threading.
  • Develop a simple device driver that demonstrates the connection between operating systems and hardware.
  • Explain the structure/architecture and function of an Operating System.
  • Demonstrate an understanding and ramifications of security and fault isolation.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of virtualisation concepts.

Assignment

Assessment Type 1: Practice-based task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 48 hours
Due: Weeks 7 and 13
Weighting: 50%

 

A semester-long programming task where students put all their skills to work creating operating system components or modules.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate an ability to apply resource management concepts and principles to application design and execution (CPU, memory, storage/files, network/I/O, processes).
  • Develop software programs that support concurrency and multi-threading.
  • Develop a simple device driver that demonstrates the connection between operating systems and hardware.
  • Demonstrate an understanding and ramifications of security and fault isolation.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of virtualisation concepts.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

Classes 

Each week you should attend two hours of lectures, and a two hour workshop. For details of scheduled classes consult the timetables webpage. 

Note that workshops (lab sessions) commence in week 1. The week-by-week details of the practical (lab) classes will be available from iLearn. 

You must attend the practical that you are enrolled in. 

Textbook and Reading Materials 

Required Text Book 

"Operating Systems Concepts" 10th edition, by Silberschatz, Gagne and Galvin. 2021. We will assign weekly readings from the textbook during lecture and/or on iLearn. 

The text book is available in electronic form online, or you can purchase a printed copy from a book seller of your choice. Is this available in the Library? 

Recommended Text 

"The C Programming Language" 2nd edition, Brian W Kernighan and Dennis M Ritchie, Prentice-Hall 1988. 

This small book is the classic reference on C programming. 

Unit Websites 

COMP2291 / COMP6291 is administered via iLearn (http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/). 

This unit outline can be found in the university's unit guides 

We will use iLearn as our main platform for making announcements, posting assignments, releasing lecture slides and other content, conducting quizzes and exams, and posting results. We will use the announcements forums on iLearn to post important messages to the class. Students may ask questions in a separate general iLearn forum, where we will answer them. 

Lecture Recordings 

Digital recordings of lectures may be available. They will be linked from iLearn. 

Technologies Used and Required 

COMP2291 / COMP6291 is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) unit. You will be expected to bring your own laptop computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) to the workshop, install and configure the required software, and incorporate secure practices into your daily work (and play!) routines. 

General Notes 

In this unit, you should do the following:

  • Review recorded lecture materials. 

  • Attend your weekly Practical session. 

  • Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions. 

  • Work on any assignments that have been released. 

Note that Workshops commence in week 1. Please note that you will be required to submit work every week. 

Students will attend weekly workshops in person, where they will receive additional explanations on class assignments and topics, and may take examinations, be asked to present stages in their labs, be asked to explain their code in vivas, etc. Students should use these workshops to ask questions of the teaching staff.

Communication Methods in COMP2291 / COMP6291 

All annoucnements about unit-related matters will be communicated through iLearn. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they check iLearn announcements, forums, and other sections regularly. 

Students are encouraged to use the iLearn forums for asking questions about unit content and concepts. Where questions are about specific details in an assessment submission. 

Any one-on-one commiunication with unit staff that is via email must be done through the student's official university email account (the one ending with '@students.mq.edu.au'). There may be occasions where unit staff will email a student directly to their @students.mq.edu.au email address. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they check their official university email regularly for communications from the university staff. 

Students may contact the convenor at the posted email above to have questions that cannot be otherwise answered by teaching staff or in the general forum, such as questions about policy in the class, but should avail themselves first of the general forum and the teaching staff at their workshops to have technical questions about their assignments answered.

Results will be released on iLearn in a timely manner, subject to certain acceptable delays such as accommodating special consideration late assessments.

COVID Information 

For the latest information on the University’s response to COVID-19, please refer to the Coronavirus infection page on the Macquarie website: https://www.mq.edu.au/about/coronavirus-faqs. Remember to check this page regularly in case the information and requirements change during semester. If there are any changes to this unit in relation to COVID, these will be communicated via iLearn. 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Changes from Previous Offering

We value student feedback to be able to continually improve the way we offer our units. As such we encourage students to provide constructive feedback via student surveys, to the teaching staff directly, or via the FSE Student Experience & Feedback link in the iLearn page.

Student feedback from the previous offering of this unit was very positive overall, with students pleased with the clarity around assessment requirements and the level of support from teaching staff. As such, no change to the delivery of the unit is planned, however we will continue to strive to improve the level of support and the level of student engagement.

Computing Drop-in Centre

COMP2291 / COMP6291 is supported by the Computing Drop-in Centre (CDC) that operates daily (weekdays) from,

  • 09:00 to 11:00 (trial, at least during the first half of S2 2023),
  • 12:00 to 14:00, 
  • 15:00 to 17:00,
  • 18:00 to 20:00 (online)

The web page at https://students.mq.edu.au/study/faculties/science-and-engineering/drop-in-centre contains further information including,

  • location,
  • the service agreement about what the centre can and cannot help you with,
  • week in which the service begins,
  • other units supported by the centre,
  • roster (as not all time slots will have staff supporting every unit),
  • zoom links for the evening sessions.

Changes since First Published

Date Description
03/10/2023 "Tutors" replaced by "teaching staff"

Unit information based on version 2023.06 of the Handbook