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.

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 is available (once approved). Note that this guide can give valuable insights into how to study the unit.

For example, I often get asked "Is such-and-such a topic examinable?". You can see what material is examinable by looking at the learning objectives. If some topic contributes to that learning objective, it is examinable. To help you understanding the relationship between the learning objectives and examinable material, every major learning activity identified in these web pages has a link to the corresponding learning objective(s). Simply hover your mouse over the learning material link to see the learning objective pop up.

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 2007 is available. The response rate was very disappointing, and probably reflects only those students who felt aggrieved in some way. Most of the negative comments related to the lectures and lecture notes, which have been addressed for 2008 (see the written responses). If you have any comments on the delivery of this unit (like you feel the tutorial wording is "too vague"), you are invited, nay encouraged, to email John Hurst with your comments! I cannot fix things that I do not know are broken!

It is proposed to set up a focus group for this unit. The focus group will be 4-8 students in size, with students able to volunteer for membership of the group. The group will meet with the lecturer on a regular basis to identify problems with the unit at an early stage, and make suggestions for improvement.

(20080812) The focus group has been established, but is only 2 students in size. More would be appreciated! Here are comments made by the focus group.

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 2008:

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. Moved to Stallings slides instead. These were much better!
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.Little use was made of bonus marks, so this issue was non-existent.
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? This was spelt out a little more clearly this year, and the lab system seems to have been working much better. Tutors report that most students cleared the hurdle relatively early in the lab cycle, but still are maintaining attendance.
6. Need to integrate the CSE2324 material more purposefully. This was done very effectively by the switch to Stallings. His chapter 2, a revision of Computer Systems, covers caching at pretty much the right level of detail.
7. Revise labs to include CSE2324 material? Not done, but the changed lectures and notes seemed to address this issue.
8. Develop better lecture notes. The move to Stallings addressed this one more than adequately.
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. Anecdotally, this seems better. Reports from the labs indicate that students do seem to be coping much better, and student interactions, questions, and the use of the Moodle fourm all suggest deeper engagement with the material during semester. One of the factors in this, I believe, is the more strict requirement that students complete the lab journals in order to gain the lab hurdle marks. Tutors report much better engagement in the labs. (The tutorials remain a problem.)

Previous News Items

20080828:164710

Assignment 2 is now available

20080724:124822

Assignment 1 is now available

20080812:133227

Note that the assignment page has been updated with a link to the Wiki Assignment Hints page.

Document History

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