Operating System from the Scratch: a Problem-Based Learning Approach for the Emerging Demands on OS Development

摘要

In recent past history of computer systems industry, for decades, the hegemony of a few de facto standards dictated by major proprietary commercial products dominated the Operating Systems (OS) field. In such technological context, consonantly to this trend, the knowledge objective focused by academical and training courses on OS-related disciplines has often been addressed more from the stand point of essential theoretical background than of the technical skills for actuation on design and development field. Emerging paradigms, nevertheless, have been rapidly changing this scenario. Among them, the establishment of Open Source concept is boosting the growing diversity of new operating systems; concomitantly, evolution of embedded hardware architectures has make it possible to run sophisticated operating systems where only bare rudimentary, ad hoc system-software were once practical. Aligned along this perspective, this paper introduces a new platform for teaching and training programs on OS development founded on a project-based approach which guides the student throughout the process of designing and programming a sufficiently simple, but yet realistic and fully functional, OS from the scratch. The differential of the present proposal regarding related works is that, instead of either merely inspecting example-code or experimenting with simulators, the apprentice is guided across the challenge of coding an entire new instance of a didactic system specification. A comparison of the companion OS-example with existing alternatives brings out a less complex implementation structure which maps conceptual modules with implementation blocks in an intuitive correspondence and with reduced function coupling. Moreover, the learning platform comes with a courseware material consistently linked to the laboratory practices, and aimed at the systemic comprehension of the many related multidisciplinary aspects.