Operating Systems Concepts

The intent of this Operating Systems Concepts Knowledge Unit is to provide students with an understanding of the roles of an operating system, its basic functions, and the services provided by the operating system.

Topics

1. File Systems
2. Privileged and non-privileged states
3. Application processes and threads
4. Memory (real, virtual, and management)
5. Files systems
6. Virtualization / hypervisors
7. Creation and operation of virtualization technology
8. Fundamental security design principles as applied to an OS
9. Access controls (models and mechanisms)
10. Domain separation, process isolation, resource encapsulation, least privilege

Outcomes

1. Describe the role and basic functions of an operating system, and how operating systems interact with hardware and software applications.
2. Identify and describe basic security issues of operating systems.

KSA-T

Below are the Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Tasks (KSA-T) identified as being required to perform this work role.
Learn More about the KAS-T's.

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Abilities
• Tasks