ENCE360-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025

Operating Systems

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2025
End Date: Sunday, 9 November 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 28 September 2025

Description

This course provides an overview of the concept of operating systems. An operating system is the most important system software and manages all the resources of a computer. This course provides a detailed view of operating system functions such as process management, memory management, I/O management, file management and virtualisation. This course also provides information about concepts such as mutual exclusion, and concurrent processes. There is an emphasis on design, implementation, and evaluation of modern operating systems including mobile and real-time operating systems.

Learning Outcomes

This course is intended for undergraduate students and practitioners interested in Operating Systems, where major areas will be introduced by the lecturer.

After completing this course, successful students:
1. Are able to understand and explain a range of concepts used in modern operating systems such as process management, memory management, I/O management, file management, virtualisation and distributed processing
2. Are able to understand and explain critical factors that should be considered during design of operating systems
3. Are able to use system calls (which provide an interface between the operating system and applications), including concurrent threads, processes, pipes, sockets, signals, etc.
4. Understand the application of these concepts to modern operating systems such as Linux, Windows, macOS/iOS and Android.

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

Employable, innovative and enterprising

Students will develop key skills and attributes sought by employers that can be used in a range of applications.

Prerequisites

ENCE260. RP: COSC110 or COSC101, COSC262.

Restrictions

COSC321

Recommended Preparation

COSC110 or COSC101, COSC262.

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 15:00 - 16:00 F3 Lecture Theatre
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 10:00 E14 Lecture Theatre
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
Computer Lab A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 08:00 - 10:00 Jack Erskine 131 Lab 1
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
02 Monday 16:00 - 18:00 Jack Erskine 136 Lab 4
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct

Course Coordinator

Richard Green

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Assignment 20%
Lab Test 20%
Lab quizzes 10%
Final Exam 50%

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau; Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces ; (https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP).

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,122.00

International fee $6,238.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Electrical and Computer Engineering .

All ENCE360 Occurrences

  • ENCE360-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025