Schaum's Outline of Operating Systems

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 256 pages
• Published by: McGraw-Hill
• Edition: 1st Edition October 23, 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0071364358
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0071364355
• Book Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 2.5 pounds

Book Description
- Covers the fundamental design principles common to all modern operating systems, including UNIX, Linux, and DOS, with an emphasis on abstract principles, rather than implementations in any particular system - Takes Schaum’s internationally acclaimed problem-solved approach, featuring detailed problems with step-by-step solutions; clear, concise explanations of all relevant operating system concepts and applications; and expert tips and techniques for solving difficult problems - Designed to be a supplementary text in traditional operating system courses (taken by more than 100,000 students a year), as well as a handy professional resource for practitioners looking for clear, concise answers to general operating system questions, especially about systems with which they may not be familiar

Book Info
Covers the fundamental design principles common to all modern operating systems, including UNIX, Linux, and DOS, with an emphasis on abstract principles, rather than implementations in any particular system. Softcover.

Reader Reviews
What it does: lead the reader through the basic concepts of classic operating systems: processes, synchronization, memory, virtual memory, file systems, IO, and security. Each section alternates between text and answered problems, as is usual for a Schaum's Outline. That's very helpful - putting a concept to use on one problem drives the point home better than a hundred pages of reading. The reader who completes this book, working a good number of the problems, will have seen most of the topics presented in a one-term OS class. No problem there. The book necessarily lacks in breadth and in detail, however. This book doesn't try to be a Tanenbaum, and isn't, so it skips many crucial topics. The interaction of hardware and OS is very under-represented. That includes things like memory-mapped IO, interrupt levels, multiprocessor configurations, and cache coherency. It mentions real-time systems, without discussing the many ways that embedded kernels differ from Windows. It discusses priveleged instructions, but skips context switching between privelege levels. The section on virtual memory skips a lot - how it interacts with a system's process structure, multiple address spaces, shared pages, reasons for non-pageable memory, and more. It brings up ancient topics, like swapping and overlays, that have just about no significance in major commercial systems. Having brought them up, it fails to mention why they're no longer relevant. But there's only so much you can cram into a 228-page summary. The content is worth three stars at best, but I give it one more for (mostly) meeting its goals. //wiredweird Comment | | (Report this)