This unit provides a thorough introduction to modern computer architecture and the construction of the operating systems that orchestrate their activities. Our goal is to understand the design of these machines rather than just their use.
In architecture terms, we focus primarily on reduced-instruction-set computers (RISC), encompassing topics ranging from how they are programmed at the assembly-language level to more conceptual aspects of processor design such as pipelining.
Building upon this experience, we turn to basic structures and concepts of operating systems and system-call interfaces. We cover design and implementation issues in process management and scheduling, principles of concurrent systems, I/O device management and drivers, memory management, and file systems.
The unit includes a significant practical-work component, which introduces the C programming language and applies it to the writing of system-level code and the modification of an operating-system kernel.
