Operating System Design: The Xinu Approach Linksys Version

Operating System Design: The Xinu Approach, Linksys Version provides a comprehensive introduction to Operating System Design, using Xinu, a small, elegant operating system that serves as an example and a pattern for system design. The book focuses the discussion of operating systems on the microkernel operating system facilities used in embedded systems. Rather than introduce a new course to teach the important topics of embedded systems programming, this textbook takes the approach of integrating more embedded processing into existing operating systems courses. Designed for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses, the book prepares students for the increased demand for operating system expertise in industry.

Highlights

• Explains how each operating system abstraction can be built and shows how the abstractions can be organized into an elegant, efficient design
• Considers each level of the system individually, beginning with the raw hardware and ending with a working operating system
• Covers every part of the system, so a reader will see how an entire system fits together, not merely how one or two parts interact
• Provides source code for all pieces described in the text, leaving no mystery about any part of the implementation — a reader can obtain a copy of the system to examine, modify, instrument, measure, extend, or transport to another architecture
• Demonstrates how each piece of an operating system fits into the design, in order to prepare the reader to understand alternative design choices

Beginning with the underlying machine and proceeding step by step through the design and implementation of an actual system, Operating System Design: The Xinu Approach, Linksys Version guides readers through the construction of a traditional process-based operating system using practical, straightforward primitives. It reviews the major system components and imposes a hierarchical design paradigm that organizes the components in an orderly and understandable manner.

All of the code in the book is designed to run on the Linksys router, because it is small, inexpensive, and easily accessible to students. Software and instructions for building a lab that allows students to experiment are available on the author’s website: www.xinu.cs.purdue.edu

Professor Comer is an internationally recognized expert on computer networking and the TCP/IP protocols. He has been working with TCP/IP and the Internet since the late 1970s. Dr. Comer established his reputation as a principal investigator on several early Internet research projects. He served as chairman of the CSNET technical committee, chairman of the DARPA Distributed Systems Architecture Board, and was a member of the Internet Activities Board (the group of researchers who built the Internet.).

Dr. Comer has created courses on operating systems, computer networks, the Internet, and TCP/IP protocols for a variety of audiences, including in-depth courses for engineers and less technical courses for others; he continues to teach at various industries and networking conferences around the world. In addition, Dr. Comer consults for private industry on the design of systems, networks, and networking equipment.

Professor Comer is well-known for his series of ground breaking textbooks on operating systems, computer networks, and the Internet. His books have been translated into sixteen languages, and are widely used in both industry and academia. Dr. Comer's three-volume series Internetworking With TCP/IP is often cited as an authoritative reference for the Internet protocols. More significantly, his texts have been used by fifteen of the top sixteen Computer Science Departments listed in the U.S. News and World Report ranking.

Dr. Comer's research is experimental. He and his students design and implement working prototypes of large, complex systems. They measure the performance of the resulting prototypes and assess tradeoffs. The operating system and protocol software that have resulted from his research have been used by industry in a variety of products.

For twenty years, Professor Comer served as editor-in-chief of the research journal Software--Practice and Experience, published by John Wiley & Sons. He is a Fellow of the ACM and the recipient of numerous teaching awards.