Operating Systems

Term Paper Ideas

There are many sources for ideas to write about for the term project. You can pick a specific operating system, such as Unix, Linux, OS/2, Windows/NT/2000/95/98, DOS, VMS, or any other commercially developed operating system. You can also pick a topic of general interest concerning a particular area in operating systems, such as:

File Systems implementation under a given operating system

Distributed File Systems

Network File Systems (NFS protocol)

Processor Scheduling in Parallel Systems

Virtual Memory Management in Distributed Systems

Inter-Process Communication in Network Systems

Workstation Networks (Sun, Apollo, HP, etc.)

Fault-Tolerant Systems (Tandem, NCR, etc.)

Distributed Operating Systems (Intel, TMI, MasPar, etc.)

Security & Protection in Operating Systems

Computer Viruses

Data Encryption technology

Multimedia Operating Systems (BeOS)

Multi-threaded Operating Systems (Solaris, Linux)

POSIX standards

Micro-kernel's (Mach, Nachos)

Virtual Operating Systems (JVMs, JavaOS)

And there are many more acceptable topics. If you still are unsure of a topic, just pick one that sounds interesting and learn about it! There are also many sources of information on these topics. In the MSOE Library there are the following periodicals which often write about these issues in computing systems:

Communications of the ACM

Journal of the ACM

ACM Computing Surveys

IEEE Computer

IEEE Transactions on Computers

IEEE Transactions on Parallel & Distributed Systems

IBM Systems Journal

Bell Systems Technical Journal

Another excellent place to begin a search is with Compendex, a computerized list of abstracts covering just about any proceedings or technical journal imaginable. Also, since the MSOE library is limited, try to find references at either Marquette's library or UWM's library. Both have very large periodical sections and cooperate with the MSOE library for inter-library loan of books and periodicals. Of course, the World Wide Web is also an excellent source for information. All you really need to get started is one good paper on your topic. Such a paper will have many references which will lead you to other sources.