Operating-System Construction
| Lecturer | Prof. Dr.-Ing. Horst Schirmeier, Dipl.-Inf. Till Smejkal |
| Modules |
Operating-System Construction (2/4/0 SWS): INF-25-Ma-FSA-OSC, INF-BAS4, INF-VERT4, INF-PM-ANW, INF-PM-FOR, INF-DSE-20-E-OSC, INF-B-510, INF-B-520 |
| Scope and Type |
2 SWS lecture, 4 SWS exercise (English) |
| Cycle | Summer semester |
| Time and Place |
first lecture: 2026-04-07 Lecture: Tue 09:20-10:50 (2. DS), APB/E023, hybrid |
| Mailing List |
Please subscribe using a TU Dresden address (for us to plan, for you to receive announcements) |
| Feedback | via email, Matrix, or our anonymous mailbox |
| Evaluation Results |
Organization
All announcements will be made via the Mailing List. The slides for the first lecture contain more organizational details.
Contents
The goal of this course is to teach the conceptual foundations and important techniques required for building an operating system. In the lab accompanying the lecture, this knowledge is applied by developing a simple PC operating system from scratch in small working groups. In order to accomplish this, a sound knowledge of the structure and functioning of PC hardware is required, which is also taught in the course. For example, the protection concept of the x86-64 architecture, current PC bus systems and modern multiprocessor interrupt systems are addressed. At the same time, operating-system basics such as interrupts, synchronization and scheduling, which should be largely known from previous courses, are revisited and deepened.
We have two kinds of exercises: The bi-weekly front-of-class exercise serves as a preliminary discussion of the individual practical course tasks and teaches technical basics which are necessary to solve them. In the practical exercises, a small simple operating system is developed jointly in groups of up to three students each. The programming languages used are mainly C++, but in special cases also C and assembler. Programming tasks are set at intervals of two weeks, which build on each other and therefore must all be solved. The acceptance of these tasks takes place on the dates of the practical course or every two weeks on the date of the exercise.
Slides
See downloads.
Programming Tasks
See Lab Tasks.