Modern Operating Systems

The widely anticipated revision of this worldwide best seller incorporates the latest developments in operating systems technologies. Hundreds of pages of new material on a wealth of subjects have been added. This authoritative, example-based reference offers practical, hands-on information in constructing and understanding modern operating systems. Continued in this second edition are the "big picture" concepts, presented in the clear and entertaining style that only Andrew S. Tanenbaum more >>

The widely anticipated revision of this worldwide best seller incorporates the latest developments in operating systems technologies. Hundreds of pages of new material on a wealth of subjects have been added. This authoritative, example-based reference offers practical, hands-on information in constructing and understanding modern operating systems. Continued in this second edition are the "big picture" concepts, presented in the clear and entertaining style that only Andrew S. Tanenbaum can provide. Tanenbaum's long experience as the designer or co-designer of three operating systems brings a knowledge of the subject and wealth of practical detail that few other books can match.

FEATURES

• NEW—New chapters on computer security, multimedia operating systems, and multiple processor systems.
• NEW—Extensive coverage of Linux, UNIX®, and Windows 2000™ as examples.
• NEW—Now includes coverage of graphical user interfaces, multiprocessor operating systems, trusted systems, viruses, network terminals, CD-ROM file systems, power management on laptops, RAID, soft timers, stable storage, fair-share scheduling, three-level scheduling, and new paging algorithms.
• NEW—Most chapters have a new section on current research on the chapter's topic.
• NEW—Focus onsingle-processorcomputer systems; a new book for a follow-up course on distributed systems is also available from Prentice Hall.
• NEW—Over 200 references to books and papers published since the first edition.
• NEW—The Web site for this book contains PowerPoint slides, simulators, figures in various formats, and other teaching aids.

PREFACE

The world has changed a great deal since the first edition of this book appeared in 1992. Computer networks and distributed systems of all kinds have become very common. Small children now roam the Internet, where previously only computer professionals went. As a consequence, this book has changed a great deal, too.

The most obvious change is that the first edition was about half on single-processor operating systems and half on distributed systems. I chose that format in 1991 because few universities then had courses on distributed systems and whatever students learned about distributed systems had to be put into the operating systems course, for which this book was intended. Now most universities have a separate course on distributed systems, so it is not necessary to try to combine the two subjects into one course and one book. This book is intended for a first course on operating systems, and as such focuses mostly on traditional single-processor systems.

I have coauthored two other books on operating systems. This leads to two possible course sequences.

Practically-oriented sequence:

1. Operating Systems Design and Implementation by Tanenbaum and Woodhull
2. Distributed Systems by Tanenbaum and Van Steen

Traditional sequence:

1. Modern Operating Systems by Tanenbaum
2. Distributed Systems by Tanenbaum and Van Steen

The former sequence uses MINIX and the students are expected to experiment with MINIX in an accompanying laboratory supplementing the first course. The latter sequence does not use MINIX. Instead, some small simulators are available that can be used for student exercises during a first course using this book. These simulators can be found starting on the author's Web page:www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/by clicking onSoftware and supplementary material for my books.

In addition to the major change of switching the emphasis to single-processor operating systems in this book, other major changes include the addition of entire chapters on computer security, multimedia operating systems, and Windows 2000, all important and timely topics. In addition, a new and unique chapter on operating system design has been added.<< less