Operating System Engineering (6.828)

Course focus

This course studies the design and implementation of operating systems through UNIX and research papers. Its emphasis is on how the system is designed and implemented rather than how it is used day to day. The syllabus ranges across virtual memory, threads and context switches, kernel design, interrupts, system calls, interprocess communication, and the way hardware and software interact.

Lab work

Individual lab assignments have students build a compact OS in C, with a little x86 assembly. The labs put lecture ideas into practice in working code.

Good for

• Readers who want to study real operating system design alongside research papers.
• Programmers comfortable with C who want low-level kernel experience.