Week 03 Notes for CS 3750 -- Fall 2002

• Take Roll.
  
  
• Look at the upcoming schedule and homework.
  
  
• Announcements
  
  
  • Readings and lectures this week are on chapters 3-4: Operating-System Structures and Processes.
    
    
  • I want to teach Operating Systems II in the spring. I'd like to know how many in the Operating Systems I class may be interested.
    
    
  • Homework #1 is due today. We will discuss answers to homework #1 on Wednesday. I won't accept late homework #1 after the beginning of class on Wednesday.
    
    
  • Homework #2 is due Monday, September 30.
    
    
  • Our first quiz will be on Friday, October 11. I'll be out of town that day. Try to get all your questions answered by Wednesday, October 9.
    
    
• Chapter 04 Synopsis: The job of the OS is to provide services to processes -- executing programs. The OS must keep track of information about each process. The abstract data structure used for that purpose is called a process control block (PCB). Much of what occurs in an OS can be understood as the movement of PCB's through a network of queues. Another major concept is that when concurrent processes share files, memory, and other resources they have to communicate and synchronize to avoid interfering with each other. (Our e-mail system is a case in point.) Programmers may provide the means by which their programs communicate with other programs. Alternatively, the OS may offer inter-process communication (IPC) facilities through the system-call interface -- often in the form of a message-passing system. Various styles of message passing are possible.