Today, virtually all operating systems support multithreaded programming. In fact, threads are easier to use and more efficient...

Introduction Operating systems (OS) courses can sometimes possess a significant open laboratory component. These programming projects can range from a semester-long multi-phase implementation of a complete (though sparse) OS to simply tweaking a particular algorithm in a single OS module. Given the di#culty of incorporating such a project in the OS course to both students and instructor it is reasonable to ask whether or not such an undertaking is pedagogically worthwhile. Furthermore, if it is worthwhile, which type of courseware system to use, and finally, what resources exist to aid the instructor in this non-trivial undertaking? The goals of this session are three-fold 1. To motivate the value of incorporating such a large project into an OS course. 2. To discuss the relative merits of the three basic types of courseware systems used to support the OS laboratory. 3. To help facilitate the wider use of the most di#cult of the courseware systems to use; hardware simulator

In this paper, we describe PortOS, an operating system designed to complement undergraduate and graduate level classes on operating systems. PortOS is a complete user-level operating system project, with phases covering concurrency, synchronization, networking and file systems. It focuses particularly on ad-hoc and peer-to-peer distributed computing on mobile devices. This paper discusses alternative approaches to operating system projects, and presents our particular design point along with pedagogical justifications.