CSCI1670

Operating Systems

Fall 2026

Operating systems sit between software developers and the hardware and make modern computing possible. Nearly every device today runs an operating system: a microwave, your smartphone, laptop, and even cars! This course covers the principles and realization of modern operating systems via a hands-on approach: students implement an operating system for an ARM64-based computer from scratch and extend it throughout the semester. Topics include the hardware/software interface, operating system structure, managing I/O via interrupts, process isolation, virtualization, concurrency and file systems. We use case studies with Linux, Windows and students' own operating system.