| CODE | CIS1103 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Computer Platforms and Applied Operating Systems | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Computer Information Systems | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The study-unit gives students an introduction to thethe main concepts,principles and structures underlying various operating systems. Students will learn about different platforms and scripting languages along with different operating systems.. Students will be able to work at the shell level and do some advanced scripting. Study-unit Aims: The aim of this study-unit is to present the main concepts in various operating systems and to teach students the practical skills required to use and understand the facilities provided by modern operating systems. The main principles involved will be presented and discussed. Operating systems like Microsoft Windows (W9X, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7,8), and more recent ones, Linux & UNIX will be considered. Topics include evolution of operating systems, the structure of operating systems, kernel, memory management, basic concepts of operating systems as a shell between the user and the hardware (concurrency issues, way of running executable programs), pipes, redirection, writing simple shell scripts, file systems and file manipulation, and basic & advanced system utilities (for example editors, text handling). Concepts of Computer Platforms will be discussed, including different hardware platforms eg x86, GNOME and CUDA. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - understand and compare different OSes such as Microsoft Windows (W9X/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/ 8) and more recent ones, Linux & UNIX; - describe how OSes have evolved to the present day and how they are structured; - describe what the Kernel is and how memory is managed; - distinguish between pipes and redirection; - list and explain the different file systems used under different OSes; - explain the concepts of operating systems as a shell between the user and the hardware (concurrency issues, way of running executable programs), and computer platforms; - understand and find the suitable platform for a particular scenario. Distinguish the different platforms and scripting languages applicable to these platforms. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - select the appropriate OS for a particular problem domain; - select the correct scripting language for a task; - rationalize about the OS structure and how this can be improved; - rationalize about task management and inter process communication; - use OS shells as well as batch scripts, powershell (Windows) and other shell scripts; - use text editors and other basic & advanced systems utilities; - manipulate files from the command line and combine processing using pipes; - do some advanced scripting in Linux; - create basic web scripts. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - A M Lister & R D Eager Fundamentals of Operating Systems, Springer. ISBN-10: 0333598482. Other: - H Hahn A Student’s Guide to UNIX, McGraw-Hill Book or UNIX Wizards UNIX Unleashed, SAMS Publ. ISBN-10: 0070254923. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Independent Study & Practicum | |||||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Clyde Meli (Co-ord.) Anthony Spiteri Staines |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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