2026/27 · Official catalogue edition
The effective term printed in this PDF is Semester A 2025/26。
Offering record for 2026/27：Semester A 2026/27 / Semester B 2026/27 · Catalogue source ↗
What you will study
- Course overview
- This course aims to introduce the concepts, roles and functionality of operating systems, which are an essential part of any computer system. By going through the major areas in the development of operating systems including process management, memory management, scheduling, I/O and disk management, students are expected to gain a broad understanding of key approaches to operating system design and implementation. By discussing the design issues of different approaches, students should be able to analyse the trade-offs and contrast their performance in satisfying different system and application requirements.
Official PDF, pages 1–2 · Abstract
- Course content
- Keyword Syllabus Operating system objectives and functions, processes and threads, mutual exclusion, synchronization, deadlock, processor scheduling, memory management, virtual memory, I/O buffering, disk scheduling and management. Syllabus: • Overview and basics of operating system Objectives and roles of operating system. Interrupt processing. Process and process control blocks. Process states and state diagrams. Modes of execution. Context switching. Multithreading. User-level and kernel-level threads. • Concurrency Race condition. Mutual exclusion. Synchronization. Semaphores. Deadlock. Classic problems. • Scheduling Long-term, medium-term and long-term scheduling. Preemptive and non-preemptive scheduling. Scheduling algorithms. • Memory management Memory hierarchy. Caching. Paging. Segmentation. Virtual memory. Thrashing. Memory allocation. Working sets. • Device management I/O devices. Direct memory access. Buffering. Disk scheduling. Failure recovery. 6 CS3103: Operating Systems • File management File organization. Directories. Secondary storage management.
Official PDF, pages 5–6 · Keyword Syllabus; Syllabus:
- Intended learning outcomes
View official learning outcomes and conditions
Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs) CILOs Weighting (if DEC-A1 DEC-A2 DEC-A3 app.) 1 Identify and describe the objectives, roles and functionality of typical operating systems. 2 Explain concepts which are fundamental to operating system requirements and designs. 3 Discuss design issues of different approaches to x operating system design and implementation in order to understand their characteristics and analyse the trade-offs. 4 Describe and contrast design and performance x of different algorithms proposed for major operating system functionalities such as scheduling, concurrency, memory and disk management. 5 Demonstrate ability/skill in applying operating x system concepts to develop and implement effective solutions to programming problems. A1: Attitude Develop an attitude of discovery/innovation/creativity, as demonstrated by students possessing a strong sense of curiosity, asking questions actively, challenging assumptions or engaging in inquiry together with teachers. A2: Ability Develop the ability/skill needed to discover/innovate/create, as demonstrated by students possessing critical thinking skills to assess ideas, acquiring research skills, synthesizing knowledge across disciplines or applying academic knowledge to real-life problems. A3: Accomplishments Demonstrate accomplishment of discovery/innovation/creativity through producing /constructing creative works/new artefacts, effective solutions to real-life problems or new processes.Official PDF, page 2 · Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs)
Before you take this course
Check prerequisites, precursors and corequisites separately, together with equivalence and exclusion conditions. “and” means conditions must be met together; “or” marks alternatives. Read combined conditions in the groupings shown in the original text below.
- Prerequisites
- Nil
Official PDF, page 1 · Prerequisites
- Precursors
- (CS2115 Computer Organization or EE2004 Microcomputer System) And (CS2310 Computer Programming or CS2311 Computer Programming or CS2360 Java Programming)
Official PDF, page 1 · Precursors
- Corequisites
- Complete official information for this field is not available.
- Additional course requirements
- Complete official information for this field is not available.
- Equivalent courses and conditions
- Nil
Official PDF, page 1 · Equivalent Courses
- Exclusive courses and conditions
- Nil Part II Course Details Abstract
Official PDF, page 1 · Exclusive Courses
Assessment and passing the course
- Assessment
- Continuous assessment: 40%; Examination: 60%; Examination duration: 2 hours
Assessment breakdown
Assessment task Weight Generative AI Remarks and restrictions Programming assignmentsCILO 2, 5 17% Yes Not stated in source row Case studyCILO 1, 2 8% Yes Not stated in source row Mid-term quizCILO 1, 2, 3, 4 15% No Not stated in source row View the original assessment table and instructions
Assessment Tasks / Activities (ATs) ATs CILO No. Weighting (%) Remarks ("-" for Allow Use of nil entry) GenAI? 1 Programming 2, 5 17 - Yes assignments 2 Case study 1, 2 8 - Yes 3 Mid-term quiz 1, 2, 3, 4 15 - No Continuous Assessment (%) 40 Examination (%) 60 Examination Duration (Hours) 2 Minimum Examination Passing Requirement (%) 30 Additional Information for ATs For a student to pass the course, at least 30% of the maximum mark for the examination must be obtained. - Passing requirements
- At least 30% of the maximum examination mark is required to pass the course.
Official PDF, page 3 · Additional Information for ATs
Credits, duration and edition details
- Title in this edition
- Operating Systems
Official PDF, page 1 · Course Code and Course Title
- Credits in this edition
- 3
Official PDF, page 1 · Credit Units
- Course duration
- One Semester
Official PDF, page 1 · Course Duration
- Syllabus effective term
- Semester A 2025/26
- Levels printed in the syllabus
- B1, B2, B3, B4 - Bachelor's Degree
Check the official document
Read or download this edition through the university link below. CS3103 · Open the original university PDF ↗
Source · University course information ↗ · Checked