Author Description

Understanding the main principles and algorithms underlying a modern operating system is essential in undergraduate computer science. The complexity of this subject, however, means that mastering it requires significant practical experience. This unique book accomplishes just that: it teaches introductory subjects in OS design and implementation through hands-on engagement with OSP 2, the next generation of the highly popular OSP courseware. This book exposes students to many essential features of operating systems while at the same time isolating them from low-level, machine-dependent concerns. With its accompanying software, the book contains enough projects for up to three semesters. Even one semester's study, however, suffices to cover page-replacement strategies in virtual memory management, CPU scheduling strategies, disk seek-time optimization and other issues in operating system design. Written for undergraduates in a first operating systems course, this text provides essential foundations through the user-friendly, highly flexible OSP 2 courseware environment.--Jacket.