OSC: Case Study Topic Guide: Educational OS
From SOFTICE
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Case Study Topic Guide: Educational OS
Phase I: Case Study Overview
If you choose this topic, you will be expected to write an introductory document covering the following items:
- Make sure you have a brief synopsis to start your report: e.g. what are educational and hobby operating systems objectives? What are they useful for?
- Provide an overview of existing educational and hobby operating systems. For each of the OS you will mention, make sure you specify;
- Name
- limitations and weaknesses
- major reference(s) where your reader can find out more (web, book, articles)
- Make sure you cover at least 4 significantly different OS. Possible educational OS to focus on;
- Nachos
- GeekOS
- Minix 3
- Topsy
- Linux 0.11 or 0.1
- …
Phase II: Core Bibliography
This phase of your case study will have to focus on one specific OS of your choice. You need to focus on finding information about the implementation choices of this OS (which scheduling algorithm is being used, which file system, how is memory managed…) and study the source code itself. The bibliography phase might be shorter than for other topics in so far that such OS have generally only a couple of sites or books devoted to them. Make sure you cover your bases and do not miss references on your OS of choice and then move on to phase III as soon as possible to give you more time to devote to the kernel code analysis.
Make sure you discuss with your instructor which aspect you will be covering in your technical tutorial so that you can focus on it during this information gathering phase.
Phase III: Technical tutorial
Depending on the OS you chose in phase I and the aspect you focused on during phase II, you will have to produce a well-focused technical tutorial. The objective is to synthesize your readings and design a PowerPoint-based presentation which will enable your colleagues to become knowledgeable on the implementation of the OS you chose.
Objectives should include;
- Explain how the scheduling algorithm works
- Explain how the memory management works
- Explain system calls implementation
- Explain how processes are created / destroyed and what the PCB contains
For each of these items, your explanation will be built by analogy with what you learned in class and you will provide a walk through of the relevant kernel code segments. Depending on the OS you chose, discuss with your instructor which part need you to spend the bulk of your efforts on.
As explained in the general guidelines your work has to be original, if you find many similar tutorials during Phase II, you need to find a way to distinguish yourself and provide an original contribution of your own.
