COSC 4330  Operating Systems  Spring 2003

Albert M. K. Cheng (acheng@cs.uh.edu)
534-PGH Office hours: MW 2:30-3:30pm
Class: 104-AH MW 1-2:30p
        
http://www.cs.uh.edu/~acheng/acheng.html

Teaching assistant: Robert Chu
Office hours: TBA
Office: 362-PGH

Prerequisites:
The official prerequisites are the core courses and a
course in computer architecture.  I expect you to be 
a good C programmer, to have a general understanding of 
assembly/machine languages, addressing, and interrupts,
and to be familiar with the various hardware components of 
a computer system including processors, memory, and I/O devices.

Textbook:
Required materials are:
Operating System Concepts by A. Silberschatz,
P. Galvin, and G. Gagne, 6th edition. 
OS Notes available from the UC copy center (second week of class).
Optional references are:
Real-Time Systems: Scheduling, Analysis, and Verification
by A. Cheng.
It contains the latest in embedded/real-time systems
scheduling, design, and analysis.
You may want to buy a book on C or C++ programming and on BSD-style
Unix or Linux systems.

Course requirements and grading:
This is a very demanding course.  There will be three in-class 
closed-book exams.  There will be several programming assignments
(with the C or C++ programming language and the BSD-style Unix 
OS) and possibly several problem sets.  I guarantee you won't 
be bored.  The exams will count for 60% of your grade; 
outside assignments will determine the remaining 40%.
You must have a passing grade on both the exams as well as on
the outside assignments in order to obtain a passing grade in the course.
Programs and problem sets will be weighted according to their 
difficulty.

Attendance:
If you miss class, you are still responsible for knowing 
everything that took place.  Your absence does not change the 
due date of an assignment.  If you miss an exam, you will 
receive a zero unless you have a verifiable medical excuse.

Academic dishonesty:
Any student found guilty of academic dishonesty will receive an F
in this course plus additional disciplinary penalty.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to,
the following:

   1. Giving or receiving information during an exam.
   2. Code-level collaboration (copying and sharing of all forms) among students on programs or homework assignments.
   3. Unauthorized or malicious use of computing facilities.
   4. Deception or misrepresentation in you dealings with your instructor
         or teaching assistant.

When in doubt, it is the student's responsibility to find out if a certain
action constitutes academic dishonesty.