About FIT2022 (aka Unit Outline)

Unit Synopsis | Workloads | Improvement | Previous News Items

Welcome to FIT2022! These web pages should be your first port of call for any information specific to this subject. If the information you seek is not here, drop me a note and I'll endeavour to fix it for you.

This subject has a Handbook Entry on the web. It also has an Anonymous Feedback Page.

Please note that these pages will be regularly updated throughout the semester. You are encouraged to bookmark the home page in your browser, and visit it at least once per week.

Unit Synopsis

The Handbook Entry for FIT2022 is available, but not very accurate. See below for more up-to-date information about the unit objectves and learning outcomes. Or you can look at the FIT2022 Avatar Entry.

The Undergraduate Handbook itself is at: http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/undergrad/

The faculty Unit Guide page for this unit can be found at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/units/info-guide/approvals.php?unit=FIT2022&action=view

Unit Objectives

The Unit Objectives are an important aid to understand what the subject is all about. In them, we try to define what the university (through the Clayton School of Information Technology) thinks is important about the subject.

1. to understand the fundamentals of computer systems insofar as they are necessary to support applications programming, and the role of operating systems in providing that support.
2. to understand operating systems as resource managers for
   1. CPU context switching, process scheduling and job scheduling
   2. memory management and virtual memory systems
   3. I/O device drivers and management
   4. file subsystems
   5. abstract resource allocation strategies
3. to understand asynchronous and synchronous communication mechanisms and their use in operating systems
4. to understand interprocess communication and its use in distributed computer systems
5. to appreciate the balance between theory and practice in operating system implementation
6. to develop skills in programming OS components, such as
   1. job and process schedulers
   2. page replacement algorithms
   3. file management subsystems
7. to appreciate that operating system design is an exercise in resource management
8. to appreciate the applicability of OS techniques and mechanisms to the wider context of computing
9. to appreciate the contextual drivers of OS design and practice across a range of organizational contexts, both in terms of
   1. conventions and protocols; and
   2. interoperability and portability
10. to understand the interaction and mutual dependencies between an operating system and the underlying hardware

Prerequisite knowledge

Material covered by the following units, as noted:

FIT1008 or FIT1015

This unit covers a number of software skills that are relevant to the unit. From the background in programming that the unit provides, students will be expected in FIT2022 to quickly pick up the programming language Python, an object-oriented high-level scripting language that will allow rapid orientation to the underlying programming issues in operating systems implementation.

FIT1001

This unit (which is itself a prerequisite to FIT1008) covers some basic computer systems material. In particular, knowledge of the internal organization and operation of the basic stored-program digital computer is assumed for FIT2022.

Relationship to following units

There are no units that follow up material in this unit.

Workloads

Students are expected to attend the three lectures each week, and 1 tutorial and 1 3-hour lab session a fortnight. In addition, some 7 hours of private study is required.

Improvement

The unit evaluation from 2006 (for the predecessor unit CSE2302) is available here. If you have any comments on the delivery of this unit, you are invited to email John Hurst with your comments.

In addition, the written responses by last year's students to the open questions 19 and 20 on the Unit Evaluation are available, along with responses by this year's unit coordinator.

You are asked to keep your laboratory journals on-line, using the svn repository provided. I will be reviewing these at the end of semester with a view to see what things worked well, and what didn't. This information will be used to improve next year's unit.

Lecturer Reflections

These are some of the things I (ajh) would like to change for next year:

1. Assignment 1 was at the wrong time, and forced me to rush some of the scheduling issues. Delay this (and the topic) to later in the unit.
2. Many students commented in the Assignment 1 discussion that they had trouble getting global variables to work. Add this to the Python introduction for next year. If the same assignment is used (or similar), a sample threading program should be added to the labs.
3. Neither the students nor I were happy with the Nutt slides (vide Staff-Student Meeting Number 2007/3) - they had too little detail. Revert to SGG.
4. The was some confusion of the timing of bonus mark offerings (vide Staff-Student Meeting Number 2007/4). I personally don't quite understand what the issue here is, so if anyone wants to write to me, please feel welcome.
5. Also raised at that meeting was a concern that the labs do not make it clear what is required to earn the "lab satisfactory" mark. I have a simple answer to that question: proof that you've learnt something new in the lab (which should be articulated in the lab journal!) May be this needs more explanation in future years?
6. Need to integrate the CSE2324 material more purposefully
7. Revise labs to include CSE2324 material?
8. Develop better lecture notes
9. An initial reflection on the exam indicates that students are not engaging with the material. There is poor understanding of bookwork, let alone any analytical or critical facility. Problems involving arithmetic indicate a poor level of ability in this area. Those students relying upon last minute cramming did not manage to cover all the material. Need to reflect on this more systematically.

Previous News Items

20071002:085011

Assignment 2: My apologies, but there is a small, but significant error in the published assignment 2. The corrected version is now available, but to fix the error you should examine your paging.py routine (the stub of which was previously published). In the call to eval(alg), the string parameter is missing a pair of parentheses. You should change the call to eval(alg+'()'). My thanks to Jesse Trapp for pointing this out.

20071001:095005

I, brave soul that I am, have a wiki page on the problems staff have with MUSO. I am making it available to students: just visit My MUSO Wiki Page to have your say! Please, if you do comment, can you add at least an indicator that you are a student? This will help us in collating comments for subsequent analysis. (PS: I think this would be a better idea for the discussion board for next year? What do you think?)

20071001:090141

Lab Sheet 6 is on-line

20071001:085657

The notes for Tutorial 6 are now available.

20070925:132929

I have added some past exam papers under the Assessment page. Please read the caveats associated with the page.

20070917:164539

I have commented on some issues raised in today's staff-student meeting. Visit Lecturer Reflections to read about them, and your possible response.

20070913:153837

Those students who missed lab 4 last week (3/4 Sep sessions) are invited to attend some catch-up lab sessions in the week immediately following the mid-semester break, that is, the week starting 1 Oct, or week 11. There are two catch-up sessions, 9am-12noon on Monday, 1 Oct 2007, and 1-4pm on Friday, 5 Oct 2007. Both labs are in the usual place, that is, building 19 room 105. You may choose whichever of these two sessions suits your timetable.

Other students who missed lab 4 or 5 for whatever reason are welcome to use the lab as a catch-up, but note the next paragraph.

To keep the sequencing of labs, the Monday and Tuesday regular labs (the missed groups) will continue with lab 4 in the week starting 17 Sep, but then use the catch-up lab to complete lab 5. The tutorials for these two groups will be held as normal, in week 11. All labs groups should be back into (process? ) synchronization by lab 6, or week 12.

20070821:123359

There is now a help desk booking (10am Mondays, room 26.140) for this unit. See the web page.

20070915:122605

Lab Sheet 5 is on-line.

20070911:082801

The notes for Tutorial 5 are now available.

20070828:113345

All students are encouraged to attend the lecture on Thursday, 30 Aug, in order to participate in a Monquest survey. Your feedback is important!

20070828:113157

Please note that all lectures for the week of 3 Sep to 6 Sep are cancelled, due to the lecturer being absent from the university on official business. The laboratory sessions will be held as normal.

20070823:113243

The notes for Tutorial 4 are now available.

20070821:124224

Lab Sheet 3 is on-line

20070820:165007

There is important information about assignment extensions of time on the FIT2022 Assessment Page

20070820:092142

I've been asked to advertise the following seminar, of interest to current students: Accentuating the Positive

20070819:180157

David Northfield has sent me a useful 'cheat sheet' for Python that others may appreciate. Thanks, David!

20070810:133235

The notes for Tutorial 3 are now available.

20070806:093334

Lab Sheet 2 is on-line

20070801:135809

Assignment 1 is now available. The due date is Wednesday, 22 Aug 2007. Submit using MUSO.

20070729:172422

Any files left in the anon ftp directory at the end of this week will be deleted! Please copy any journal entries you wish to keep before Friday, 3 Aug 2007! (Those students who filed their journal entries in a subdirectory under their student id have had their journal entries copied across to the SVN repository automatically.)

20070729:172318

Tutorial 2 Notes are now available

20070719:162455

Lab Notes for Session 1 are now released.

20070712:164311

Tutorial 1 is available

20070213:125059

No news today

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