Program Overview

COMP3520: Operating Systems Internals

Unit Description

This unit provides a comprehensive discussion of relevant OS issues and principles and describes how those principles are put into practice in real operating systems. The contents include internal structure of OS; several ways each major aspect (process scheduling, inter-process communication, memory management, device management, file systems) can be implemented; the performance impact of design choices; case studies of common OS (Linux, MS Windows NT, etc.).

Unit Details and Rules

Managing Faculty or University School

The managing faculty for this unit is Engineering.

Details

• Study level: Undergraduate
• Academic unit: Computer Science
• Credit points: 6

Enrolment Rules

• Prerequisites: (COMP2017 or COMP2129) and (COMP2123 or COMP2823 or INFO1105 or INFO1905)
• Corequisites: None
• Prohibitions: None
• Assumed knowledge: None

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit, students should be able to:

• demonstrate abilities in technical writing to communicate complex ideas clearly
• possess knowledge of available OS systems
• demonstrate ability to design algorithms to solve OS related problems
• hold an understanding of OS internal components
• demonstrate ability to efficiently implement OS-related algorithms
• understand the significance of OS concepts and its impact on the whole computer systems
• hold an understanding of a range of algorithms for OS, their performance and how and where to apply them.

Unit Availability

This unit is available in various sessions, including:

• Semester 2 2025: Normal day, Camperdown / Darlington, Sydney
• Semester 2 2026: Normal day, Camperdown / Darlington, Sydney
• Previous years: Various sessions and locations, including remote attendance options.