Operating Systems CS502 Spring 2006
Term Project
The goals of this term project are
· As a class, to introduce you to a number of operating systems in use today other than the familiar desktop and time-sharing systems based on Unix/Linux, Windows, and the Macintosh.
· As an individual, to analyze the principal characteristics of one such operating system in terms of the topics of this course and to describe that system for the rest of the class.
To complete this term project, you will be required to
· Conduct research on the web and other sources to identify five currently available operating systems and summarize each one in a single paragraph.
· With the approval of your instructor, select one operating system for in-depth study. Each member of the class will study a different system.
· Discover the principal characteristics of the selected operating system, including how its processes work, its scheduling policies and practices, memory management, file management and persistent storage, input, output, and graphics, networking (if any), loading and execution of programs, services, and anything else that is relevant.
· Make an oral report of 10-15 minutes to the class of your findings. Reports will be in the tenth and eleventh weeks of the term.
· Make a written report of up to ten pages, to be handed in at the beginning of the last class of the term. Discussion and feedback from the class and instructor during your oral report should be incorporated into this written report.
This project is an important part of the course and counts for 25% of your final grade. Grades will be based on the quality and completeness of your analysis and the quality of the oral presentation and term-report.
This project is designed to be carried out individually under the terms of the WPI Academic Honesty Policy.
With approval of the instructor, you may collaborate with one other person, but the requirements change. In the initial research phase, your team will be required to identify at least seven operating systems. During the in-depth study phase, you will be required to study two operating systems and compare and contrast them. Your oral and written reports will be the length of two individual reports and must address both systems. In order to secure approval to collaborate, you should be able to explain why the result of your collaboration will be greater than the sum of results of your individual efforts.
We are all familiar with the personal computer systems such as Mac OS and Windows and with Unix and Linux systems used in university computing centers and many commercial situations. Most of us are less familiar with operating systems used to support games, cell phones and other personal devices, real-time applications, process control systems, embedded applications, fault-tolerant transaction processing systems, etc.
The purpose of this phase of the term project is to find out a little bit about these other systems. You should identify at least five systems that are currently available and in use and for which information can be found on the web, in libraries, or from other sources. For each identified system, please write a paragraph that describes its reason for being, the target market or application space, the principal requirements that it must address, and its goals and objectives. Also include one or more references indicating where in-depth information may be found.
You should list the systems you have identified in your order of preference for deeper study. If you have particular experience with any of them, either as an operating system developer or as a programmer for that environment, please indicate that also.
The instructor will endeavor to assign your highest preference system consistent with the requirement that each member of the class study a different system. If there are conflicts among highest preferences, the instructor will communicate by e-mail or by phone with you. Please provide current contact information.
The operating system selected by you and your instructor for in-depth study and analysis defines an environment for supporting a particular class of applications and/or users. You need to understand and describe this class and which is special about it that makes Unix or Windows unsuitable (or less suitable).
The operating system will probably define a number of abstractions and services discussed during this class. These include processes, interprocess communication and synchronization, memory management, file systems and/or persistent storage of data, input and output, program loading and unloading, and possibly graphics, security, multiple processor support, network support, etc. In your oral and written reports, you need to explain what these abstractions and services are and how they affect the programming environment and the thought processes of programmers developing applications for the system. If one or more of the major abstractions or services is missing from your selected system, you should explain why it is not needed and how applications do without.
Assignment |
Deliverable |
Due Date |
|
Request permission to collaborate |
Email to <instructor's last name>@cs.wpi.edu explaining who and why |
2/6/06 |
|
List of five operating system in order of preference |
One paragraph for each system, by e-mail to <instructor's last name>@cs.wpi.edu prior to the start of class. |
2/13/06 |
|
Approval of selected system |
Communication by e-mail with instructor |
2/20/06 |
|
Oral reports to class |
10-15 minute oral report, supported by slides (Powerpoint or otherwise) |
3/27/06 and 4/3/06 |
|
Written report |
Email to <instructor's last name>@cs.wpi.edu prior to the start of class, and bring a printed copy to final class of term. |
4/24/06 |
This project will be worth 25% of the final grade of the course. The grad will be apportioned as follows:–
· 6 points for the list of five operating systems and descriptive paragraphs.
· 9 points for the oral report, based on quality of the information about the system.
· 10 points for the written report, with special emphasis on addressing the feedback from the oral report.
Late delivery without prior notification and permission from the instructor will result in a loss of 10% of the points for that deliverable per day late.
In the case of approved collaboration, each member of the team will receive the same grade.