CSC 420 Syllabus

Course info ~ Instructor info ~ Grades ~ Roadmap

Course Info

Description

Here's the course description from the CSC department:

An examination of approaches to the management of computer system resources. Topics include scheduling, memory management, file handling,
multiprocessing, security, and protection. Programming may be required.

Prerequisites: CSC 210, CSC 220.

Offered: Annually.

Please note that since 210 and 220 are prereq's, it is assumed that you are comfortable programming in C++.

Course Meeting

We'll meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 am to noon at Carnegie 113

Textbook

Our textbook is "Operating System Concepts - sixth edition" by Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne.

The author/publisher has an accompanying website:

www.wiley.com/college/silberschatz

Instructor Info

My name is Bill Krieger.

The best way to contact me is via email at: wikrieger@noctrl.edu

Office Hours

My office is located at Carnegie 310-D

My offices hours are: Mondays and Wednesdays from noon to 2:00 pm (after class). My schedule is flexible, so I am also available at other times by appointment.

Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is: 1) learn the stuff, 2) show it (get a good grade), and 3) have fun.

Grades

Your course grade will be split nearly into thirds:

Homework/Programs	30%
Midterm Exam	35%
Final Exam	35%

A standard A=90+, B= 80+, C= 70+, D = 60+, F = 59- scale will be used.

Unexcused late homework assignments or programs penalties will be:

1 day late	25% off
2 days late or more	50% off
1 week late or more	100% off

Addendum:

The grading percentages are unchanged. The total available points for the course will be 1,000 points. Here's a more detailed grading breakdown:

Homeworks/programs 30%

8 homeworks worth 20 points each (except one worth 10 points) = 150 points

3 programs (not counting Hello World) worth 50 points each = 150 points

Midterm Exam 35%

The Midterm will be worth 350 points

Final Exam 35%

The Final will be worth 350 points

Roadmap

This is really, really tentative:

Week	Textbook	Comment
1	Ch 1-3	Introductory material
2	Ch 4-5	Process and Threads
3	Ch 6-7	CPU scheduling and process synchronization
4	Ch 7-8	Synchronization and deadlocks
5		Midterm
6	Ch 9-10	Memory management
7	Ch 11-12	File Systems
8	Ch 13-14	I/O Systems
9	Ch 15-17	Distributed Systems
10		Final exam