CMP 426 & CMP 697 - Operating Systems
Spring 2025 Syllabus

Course Information
Course Section Lecture Hours Location
CMP 426 & CMP 697 - C401 Tu & Th 2:00 pm – 3:40 pm GI 333
Contact Information
Instructor: Steven Fulakeza Email: steven.fulakeza(at)lehman.cuny.edu
Phone: NA Office Location: GI 232
Office Hours: Tu & Th 3:50 pm to 5:50 pm
Instructor Availability: I respond to students' emails regularly, but please note that I do not typically check email or Slack messages during late hours on weekdays. Additionally, I do not monitor these platforms on weekends, as I reserve and dedicate this time to family, rest, and religious observances. Any messages received during these times will be addressed when I am back online.



CMP 426 Course Description: 4 hours, 4 credits

Operating systems and their role in various types of computer systems; the principles of multiprogramming; algorithms for resource allocation; multiple-computer systems. PREREQ: CMP 334 and CMP 338.

CMP 697 Course Description: 4 hours, 4 credits

A study of the functions and implementation of operating systems for various sizes and types of computers. Processor, storage, and device management. Paging algorithms, thrashing. File systems, concurrency, deadlocking, semaphores, and synchronization.

Course Objectives:

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  1. use the command line to interact with the operating system
  2. explain operating systems and their role in various types of computer systems
  3. describe the basic structure of an operating system and its components
  4. describe the concept of a process, threads and how processes deal with scheduling, cooperation, and communication with other processes
  5. describe CPU scheduling algorithms and be able to compare them
  6. explain the classical problems in process synchronization and know several different ways to solve such problems, including semaphores, critical regions, and monitors
  7. explain how to characterize and handle deadlocks, including prevention, avoidance, detection, and recovery
  8. understand main memory and virtual memory and describe several different schemes for managing main memory, including swapping, virtual memory, paging, and segmentation
  9. describe file/storage management
  10. discuss how disks are structured and how their space is managed by the operating system

Grade Policy:

Your grades will be computed based on the following:

CMP 426:

Activity Percentages
Participation Activities from the textBook and Quizzes 10%
Homework Assignments 30%
Midterm Exam 30%
Final Exam 30%

CMP 697:

Activity Percentages
Participation Activities from the textBook and Quizzes 10%
Homework Assignments and Blackboard Quizzes 30%
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Exam 25%
Research Paper and Presentation (for graduate students only) 10%

Exam Schedule:

Midterm Exam 04/03/2025

Final Exam: 05/22/2024 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

There are no make-up or alternate exams. A Make-up exam might be given only when a student's absence is unavoidable. In such a case, the student must file a formal written request with substantial evidence. If you cannot take any of the exams during the schedule period because you have prior engagements, please take the course next semester when your schedule is open.

The last date to withdraw from a course with a W is April 1st by 11:59PM.

Grading Scale CMP 426:

Letter Grade Ranges%
A 93 - 100
A- 90 - <93
B+ 87 - <90
B 83 - <87
B- 80 - <83
C+ 77 - <80
C 73 - <77
C- 70 - <73
D+ 67 - <70
D 63 - <67
D- 60 - <63
F <60

Grading Scale CMP 697:

Letter Grade Ranges%
A 93 - 100
A- 90 - <93
B+ 87 - <90
B 83 - <87
B- 80 - <83
C+ 77 - <80
C 73 - <77
C- 70 - <73
F <73

Homework Assignments and Submission

Several homework assignments are given during lectures. Students need to work on the homework for preparing exams but may not need to submit the homework assignments to the instructor. Some selected homework problems will be assigned as formal assignments to be submitted for grading.

Students must work in their own assignments unless I state otherwise. No late assignments will be accepted.

Homework assignments will include the following areas and more:

  • Process creations/executions based on Linux/UNIX API and Win API
  • Message based communications based on Linux/UNIX API
  • Shared memory-based communications between processes based on Linux/UNIX API and WIN API
  • Multithreading based on POSIX API, Win API, Java threads
  • Java nexus IO (memory mapped IO), Windows memory mapped IO
  • Synchronization based on UNIX System V API, POSIX API, Win API
  • Linux kernel module programming/driver programming

Graduate Students Research Paper:

For Graduate Students Only (CMP 697): Research Paper (12 - 15 pages double space in 12 fonts) in various contemporary research areas such as:

  • Threading issues in Linux kernels
  • Fast mutual exclusions
  • Virtualization and cloud computing
  • File systems in solid state devices
  • In-memory file systems
  • in memory DBMS
  • Operating System Support for Mobile Applications

Some details about research paper writing and presentation will be discussed during office hours. Research Paper Proposal Due: May 9, 2025 by 11:59 pm via email (1 page of extended abstract with at least 5 academic research papers as references)

Research Paper Due Date: May 15, 2025, by 11:59 pm via email

Research Paper Presentation Date: May 15, 2025 at the beginning of class

Survey Research Paper Structure

  1. Title, name, date, course number
  2. Abstract: This is a brief summary that describes your entire paper. Your abstract should contain 150 - 300 words. You have to write this last.
  3. Introduction: Your introduction should provide the background problem you are researching.
  4. Body of the paper and discussion
  5. Conclusion that summarizes the paper and describes future work for the research
  6. References: ACM = Association of Computing Machinery

Honor Code

Students are encouraged to study together. However, you must do your own work for all your homework assignments, projects and exams. You should never copy code or antwork from the internet or another student. You are responsible for knowing and following Lehman's academic integrity code (available from the Undergraduate Bulletin, Graduate Bulletin, or the Office of Academic Standards and Evaluations). All incidents of cheating will be reported to the Vice President of Student Affairs.

Expectations

Students are expected to learn both the material covered in class and the material in the textbook and other assigned reading. Completing homework is an essential part of the learning experience. Students should review topics from prior courses as needed using old notes and books.

Blackboard & Communication

I will be communicating with you on a regular basis throughout the semester using the email address listed on Blackboard for this course. You are required to make sure that the email address on Blackboard is your current Lehman email address and you must check it on a regular basis. There will be no acceptable excuse for missing an email announcement.

Accommodating Disabilities:

Lehman College is committed to providing access to all programs and curricula to all students. Students with disabilities who may need classroom accommodations are encouraged to register with the Office of Student Disability Services. For more info, please contact the Office of Student Disability Services, Shuster Hall, Room 238.
Phone number: 718-960-8441
Email: disability.services@lehman.cuny.edu
Webpage: http://www.lehman.edu/student-disability-services


Tentative Schedule:

Week Day Date Topic Reading Materials
1101/28/2025Introduction, Syllabus, Chapter 1Syllabus & Chapter 1
1201/30/2025Chapter 1Chapter 1
2302/04/2025Chapter 2 - OS Structures: OS Services, User and OS Interface, Shell, Kernel, System callsChapter 2
2402/06/2025Chapter 2 - OS Structures: System calls, System Services, Linkers and Loaders Chapter 2
3502/11/2025Chapter 2 - OS Structures: Operating-System Design and Implementation, Operating-System StructureChapter 2
3602/13/2025Chapter 3 - Processes: Process concept, Process state, process control block, Process scheduling, Operations on ProcessesChapter 3
4X02/18/2025Classes follow a Monday schedule
4702/20/2025Chapter 3 - Processes: Write a program to create and execute a process using the fork() system callChapter 3
5802/25/2025Chapter 3 - Processes: Interprocess Communication, Asynchronous, Synchronous communicationChapter 3
5902/27/2025Chapter 3 - Processes: Sockets, PipesChapter 3
61003/04/2025Chapter 4 - Threads & Concurrency: Threads, relationship to processes, creation/terminationChapter 4
6X03/06/2025Classes follow a Wednesday Schedule
71103/11/2025Chapter 4 - Threads & ConcurrencyChapter 4
71203/13/2025Chapter 5 - CPU SchedulingChapter 5
81303/18/2025Chapter 5 - CPU SchedulingChapter 5
81403/20/2025Chapter 5 - CPU SchedulingChapter 5
91503/25/2025Chapter 6 - Synchronization Tools: Critical sections, Peterson's, Atomic hardware solutionsChapter 6
91603/27/2025Chapter 6 - Synchronization Tools: Mutexes, spinlocks, SemaphoresChapter 6
101704/01/2025Exam ReviewRead & Review Chapters 1 through 6
101804/03/2025Midterm examRead & Review Chapters 1 through 6
11X04/08/2025Spring recess
11X04/10/2025Spring recess
12X04/15/2025Spring recess
121904/17/2025Chapter 7 - Synchronization Examples: Producer-Consumer, Readers-Writers, Dining PhilosophersChapter 7
132004/22/2025Chapter 8 - Deadlocks: Deadlocks, Deadlock detection, AlgorithmsChapter 8
132104/24/2025Chapter 8 - Deadlocks: Algorithms, Recovery from DeadlockChapter 8
142204/29/2025Chapter 9 - Memory Management - Contiguous memory allocationChapter 9
142305/01/2025Chapter 9 - Memory Management - Relocation and Paging, Hierarchical PagingChapter 9
152405/06/2025Chapter 9 - Memory Management - SwappingChapter 9
152505/08/2025Chapter 10 - Virtual Memory - Demand Paging, COWChapter 10
162605/13/2025Chapter 10 - Virtual Memory - Page Replacement, Thrashing, Working setChapter 10
162705/15/2025Chapter 11 - Storage Management - HDD Scheduling and RAID Structure and Exam ReviewChapter 11
172805/20/2025
172905/22/2025Final Exams

Operating System Examples

  • UNIX
  • Linux
  • MacOS
  • Windows
  • Android