Operating System Design ─ The Xinu Approach Linksys Version

Intended for high level undergraduate or graduate students in computer science, this textbook on operating system design explores the core functions of operating systems using the Xinu operating system architecture and inexpensive Linksys routers as the hardware platform. Beginning with overviews of the hardware and runtime environment, the volume covers such topics as list and que manipulation, process management, message passing, memory management, interrupt processing, clock management, device I/O, drivers and file systems. Chapters include illustrations, code examples, summaries and exercises. Comer is a professor of computer science at Purdue University. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Professor Comer is an internationally recognized expert on computer networking and the TCP/IP protocols. He has been working with TCP/IP and the Internet since the late 1970s. Dr. Comer established his reputation as a principal investigator on several early Internet research projects. He served as chairman of the CSNET technical committee, chairman of the DARPA Distributed Systems Architecture Board, and was a member of the Internet Activities Board (the group of researchers who built the Internet.).

Dr. Comer has created courses on operating systems, computer networks, the Internet, and TCP/IP protocols for a variety of audiences, including in-depth courses for engineers and less technical courses for others; he continues to teach at various industries and networking conferences around the world. In addition, Dr. Comer consults for private industry on the design of systems, networks, and networking equipment.

Professor Comer is well-known for his series of ground breaking textbooks on operating systems, computer networks, and the Internet. His books have been translated into sixteen languages, and are widely used in both industry and academia. Dr. Comer's three-volume series Internetworking With TCP/IP is often cited as an authoritative reference for the Internet protocols. More significantly, his texts have been used by fifteen of the top sixteen Computer Science Departments listed in the U.S. News and World Report ranking.

Dr. Comer's research is experimental. He and his students design and implement working prototypes of large, complex systems. They measure the performance of the resulting prototypes and assess tradeoffs. The operating system and protocol software that have resulted from his research have been used by industry in a variety of products.

For twenty years, Professor Comer served as editor-in-chief of the research journal Software--Practice and Experience, published by John Wiley & Sons. He is a Fellow of the ACM and the recipient of numerous teaching awards.