This course is characterizing for the Master of Science in Computer Engineering, and it is held at the second semester of the first year.
This course analyzes the operating system architecture, and its internal modules. It introduces concepts and techniques for an effective management of the resources of a computer system (processors, memories, devices, files, etc.). System programming techniques are illustrated through the analysis and use of Unix and Windows system calls.

• Knowledge of the operating systems architecture as a collection of resource managers
• Knowledge of operating system kernel modules, and skill to implement new modules
• Skill for using system calls for the creation, synchronization and termination of processes and threads
• Knowledge of virtual memory mechanism
• Knowledge of process scheduling with and without real-time constraints
• Skill to understand and implement memory management and scheduling algorithms
• Knowledge of device management
• Skill to understand and implement device drivers
• Knowledge of modern file system organizations and skill to manage file systems and file locking
• Knowledge of the main mechanisms for resource and information protection
• Knowledge of system programming APIs (system calls)
• Skill to understand and implement programs based on system calls.

• Knowledge of a computer system architecture: in particular structure of the CPU and memory
• Knowledge of the interrupt mechanism and basics of an Assembler language
• Knowledge of the main data type structures and algorithms
• Good programming skill in C language
• Knowledge of the concurrent programming techniques

Operating Systems architecture (10 h)
modules for the management of the resources of a computer system
process and thread management,
synchronization,
exception handling
interprocess communication
Memory management (6 h)
segmentation
paging
virtual memory
Process scheduling (4 h)
Device management (6 h)
I/O terminal management
disk management
Win32 low-level system architecture: operating system families, device drivers
synchronous and asynchronous I/O
Linux device drivers
File system management (8 h)
file system organization, management and protection
file locking
Resource and information protection (2 h)
Win32 System Programming: (28 h)
File and directory manipulation
Processes and threads
Synchronization primitives
Structured Exception Handling
Memory management
Asynchronous I/O

Laboratory practice (36 h)
Concurrent programming with processes and threads
Linux kernel customization and install
PC booting
Kernel modules and daemons
Device drivers
Exception handling
Writing a system call
File system internals and system calls
Visual studio programming environment
Binary files and concurrent programming in Win32
Multiple threads/processes and synchronization primitives in Win32
Exception handling in Win32

The class can be divided into theory lectures, practice lessons and laboratories. There is no formal distinction between theory and practice as almost all course topics involve theory and practice aspects developed during the classroom lessons by the teacher.
Laboratories allow students to solve typical concurrency problems, to be introduced to system, kernel and module programming, and applying all theory and practice aspects analyzed during the classroom lessons.

Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne: 'Operating System Concepts', 7th Edition, John Wiley & son, 2003, ISBN: 0-471-69466-5

Bovet D. P., Cesati M., Understanding the Linux Kernel, 3rd Edition, O'Reilly, 2005. ISBN: 0-596-00565-2

Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg KroahHartman: 'Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition, O'Reilly, 2005

W.R. Stevens
"Advanced programming in the UNIX Environment", Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

Johnson M. Hart,
'Windows System Programming', Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

The laboratory assignments have a deadline , and are evaluated during the exam to assess that the student has acquired not only a theoretical knowledge of the course topics, but it also able to implement concurrent solutions, to be proficient in system programming, to understand implementation details of the kernel, to implement modules and a minimal kernel.
The final exam is written. It includes two parts:
- the first part consist in solving and implementing a problem in C language by means of concurrent processes or threads, and other system calls (18 marks)
- the second part includes five questions covering the topics of the course, both theory and practice (15 marks)
The final result is the sum of the marks obtained in the first( marks >= 8) part and the second part (marks >= 10)