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Lecture 1: Introduction

12 August, 2011

During this lecture, we will first go through some admin matters and answer the question: why should you learn OS? We will then briefly discuss what is an OS and its dual role as a programming interface and resource manager. Students will learn about the concepts of system calls, user mode/kernel mode, multi-programming, and time-sharing.

Download Slides: PDF

Reading:

  • Section 1.1: Introduces what is an OS.
  • Section 1.2, 1.3: History and Taxonomy of OS (FYI only).
  • Section 1.4: Review of CS2100 (good to read to refresh your memory).
  • Section 1.6 (till 1.6.1): How a system call is invoked — no details for now.

Related Wikipedia entries are listed below. These are for students who are keen to go beyond what is covered in CS2106. Read the articles with a critical mind since Wikipedia is editable by anyone.

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Pre-class Activity 1

I try to post some pre-class activities every week before the lecture. These are activities that you can do or think about before each lecture. We may not explicitly discuss every pre-class activity during lecture and tutorial, but nonetheless following each activity could help improve your understanding of the class. Feel free to discuss these activities online (via commenting on this blog post) with your classmates and the teaching staff.

What is an operating system?

  1. Google “define: operating system” and see what the rest of the Web say.

  2. Microsoft tried to bundle the Internet Explorer with every Microsoft Windows, claiming that it is part of the operating system (see Wikipedia entry on US vs MSFT)

    Based on your understanding what an operating system is, should the Web browser be part of the operating system?

  3. Recently, a new phrase “The Web browser is the new operating system” has emerged. What does this mean? Do you agree?
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Welcome to the CS2106 Blog

This blog will serve as the main website for CS2106, containing tutorials, lecture slides, labs, webcasts, and general announcement about CS2106. From time-to-time, we might post interesting tidbits, bookmarks, and news related to CS2106. You are also free to make comments, ask questions, answer questions, raise issues, etc. through the blog. The blog serves as a replacement for IVLE’s workbin, announcement, and forum.

As the blog will be frequently updated (sometimes with important announcements), you should check the blog frequently for the latest updates. Two easier options to keep yourself up to date are (i) subscribe to the blog update via email, in which case you will receive an email everytime the blog is updated, (ii) subscribe to the blog RSS feeds, in which case you can use any RSS reader (e.g., Google Reader, Thunderbird) to read the blog’s feed along with other websites you are interested in.

For printing a particular page or post, I find the Readability bookmarklet useful.

The first class of CS2106 will be on Friday, 12 August 2010 in LT15. See you there!