Importance of Operating Systems:

Operating systems (OS) is the software that supports a computer's basic functions, such as scheduling tasks, executing applications, and controlling peripherals. Computer scientists should be aware of how kernels handle system calls, paging, scheduling, context-switching, filesystems and internal resource management. Understanding operating systems and run time systems becomes especially important when programming an embedded system without an operating system.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this short course, learners at a broad level will be able to:

• Objective 1: Define the key components and terminologies in operating systems
• Objective 2: Distinguish between threads and processes
• Objective 3: Explain the mechanisms used in different OS components such as context switching, CPU scheduling, memory management and input output
• Objective 4: Analyze the efficiency and execution times of algorithms related to CPU scheduling, memory management, process synchronization, and deadlock handling

Syllabus:

The course syllabus is available here.

Who this course is designed for:

Students who are either admitted with prerequisites to graduate programs in Computer Science in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering (CIDSE) at Arizona State University or students who are interested in becoming eligible to apply to one of those programs. Students may also complete this course if they have general interest in the topic area or are looking for a refresher on operating systems.

What you'll receive:

You will receive a certificate of completion with your grade that you can attach in your graduate application for any graduate program within CIDSE. You must receive a 70% or higher in order to receive a certificate.

If you’re an online student, please email your certificate to at mcsonline@asu.edu. If you’re an on-campus (Tempe/Poly) student, please email your certificate to cidse.advising@asu.edu.