(Latest Revision:
09/17/2003
)
Week 03 Notes for CS 3750 -- Fall 2003
- 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.
- Homework #1 is due Friday. I will collect homework at the beginning
of class and discuss answers immediately. I will not accept
homework late. You should save a copy of the homework to correct
and study from for the quiz on Monday.
- To study for the quiz you may: Do the reading, study homework
answers, look at questions at the ends of the chapters, look at the
review questions in the class web space, and examine the on-line
notes. The homework questions, review questions and on-line notes
will give you a pretty good idea of what I tend to stress.
- This week we are discussiong chapters three and four.
- 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.