In this course, we will study the three main concepts of modern operating systems design: Virtualization, Concurrency, and Persistence. We will also study how they are implemented in practice. We will use the Rust programming language as a tool for investigating these concepts.

At the end of this course, you will be expected to be able to:

• Describe how an operating system:
  • Enables a user to start a new process and manage a running process.
  • Schedules the CPU.
  • Handles input/output via hardware interrupts and memory mapping.
  • Handles network communication using TCP sockets.
  • Supports memory allocation and deallocation.
  • Implements virtual memory through paging and segmentation.
  • Organizes persistent storage in a hierarchical file system.
• Implement communication between:
  • Concurrent processes.
  • Concurrent threads.
  • Different computers connected over a network.
• Describe common concurrency problems and techniques for resolving them.
• Analyze the performance of competing approaches to an implementation.
• Implement an application that runs in the absence of an operating system.

• Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces, by Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau
• The Rust Programming Language
• The Redox Book
• Writing an OS in Rust

• Create an application in Rust that leverages or illuminates virtualization, concurrency, or persistence.
• Create a bare-metal application in Rust.
• Create a Rust application that runs under Redox.
• Modify or extend Redox.
• Write documentation for elements of Redox that are not yet documented.

Schedule