CS162: Introduction to Operating Systems - Lecture 1

Instructor and Course Information

• Instructor: John Kubitowicz
• Course Format: Virtual, held twice a week
• Interaction: Questions via chat during lectures; slides and videos will be posted

Overview of Operating Systems

• Definition: Provides access to hardware resources, manages sharing of resources, and creates abstractions for easier programming.
• Importance: Central to the functionality of interconnected systems like the Internet.

Key Concepts in Operating Systems

• Virtualization: The Internet and interconnected devices as a large virtual system.
• Diversity of Devices: From one computer per million people to hundreds of devices per person.
• Time Scales: Systems operate from nanoseconds to seconds.
• Consistency: Providing stable programming abstractions across varying hardware.

Operating Systems as a System

• Roles:
  • Referee: Manages protection, isolation, and sharing of resources.
  • Illusionist: Provides clean abstractions of complex hardware.
  • Glue: Offers common services such as file systems and communication protocols.
• Core Components: Processes, threads, concurrency, scheduling, security, communication.
• Virtualization: Abstracts complex hardware into simpler, programmable units.

Historical Context and Development

• Internet Evolution: From ARPANET to a system with billions of devices.
• Moore's Law: Impact on the advancement and complexity of systems.

Course Structure

• Enrollment: Class limit of 428 to ensure quality during virtual learning.
• Projects and Homeworks: Emphasize practical system building and use of tools like Git.
• Group Work: Essential for learning collaboration and communication.
• Assessments: Includes three Zoom-proctored midterms.

Interaction and Participation

• Cameras Required: For discussions, exams, and collaboration.
• Attendance: Mandatory for sections and design reviews.
• Collaboration Tools: Use of Piazza for course communication; required regular group meetings.

Challenges in Operating Systems

• Complexity: Handling diverse devices, platforms, and applications.
• Parallelism: Managing numerous simultaneous processes on multi-core systems.
• Security: Ensuring protection in a networked environment.

Conclusion

• Operating systems are the backbone of modern computing, providing essential abstractions and services that enable the functionality of applications across a wide variety of devices and networks.
• The course aims to deliver comprehensive knowledge and experience in designing, managing, and understanding operating systems.