Description
The research paper will be an APA or IEEE style, 4000-5000 word paper (not including references page) on a topic from the list below — or of the student’s choosing with approval from the instructor. The goal of the paper is to allow the student to research a topic and write a meaningful analysis of the topic. After a thorough literature search, the student should endeavor to interpret the research, draw conclusions, and possibly make recommendations for improvement of the technology in the topic or future directions for research on the topic.
Conclusions and recommendations should be logically based on the research and readings that were used. The paper should contain numerous citations to any facts taken from references. In addition to content, spelling and grammar is considered. A paper with more than ten spelling or grammar errors will lose at least 10% off the final grade for the paper, and more if the paper is incomprehensible.
Resources
In doing research for the paper, students should start with the databases provided by the university on the library website. You need peer-reviewed academic sources. Vendor websites are not accepted as credible unless the paper is about a particular technology, and must still be supplemented by peer reviewed articles. Students who are not sure if a website is credible need to e-mail the instructor with the site and reasoning for using it. Wikipedia is not a credible source. Do not cite it as a resource and do not quote from it. I will not accept any papers that use this resource. However feel free to find references at the bottom of the Wiki page and use them as a starting point if needed.
There is no maximum number of resources, but you should consult and list at least 5 resources in your works cited/consulted section.
Quoting Material
You should use the methods provided by APA for quoting material. Very little of your paper may be quoted material. Quotes should only be used to elucidate a point, show an example, or otherwise help the reader understand the topic. They are not to be used as filler to get to your page requirement. You should however, site facts used in the paper. You may not cut and paste or use exact wording just because you cited the source.
Pay attention to comments on the Week 1 report to find out what you might be doing wrong.
Paper Topics
For each topic I have listed some questions I want answered in the paper. You may tackle other issues, but these are the core questions I want you to consider. Failure to answer or attempt to answer the questions results in a reduction in your overall grade for the paper. All papers must be written with regard to the material we have studied in class including in-depth discussions of process scheduling, memory management, file system or disk operation, and so on, depending on what is appropriate to the paper. Simple surface descriptions are not enough.
1. Alternative Operating System
Choose an alternative operating system besides MAC OS, Windows, or Unix and do a detailed analysis of how the operating system works or worked. Include the various topics we have studied in class including process scheduling, memory management kernel type and so on. In addition, compare it to the three mainstream operating systems (Windows, Linux, MAC OS) in terms of functionality, implementation, and scope. There are many other possible alternative operating systems. Do some research. Some possible examples include but are not limited to:
MULTICS
Note: Any version of Windows, Linux and MAC are OFF LIMITS!
2. Distributed Operating Systems
There has been a lot of work on distributed operating systems and research continues. You should be able to find a lot of material.
3. The Reiser File System
The Reiser file system is one of the options for Linux.
What is the Reiser file system?
How does it differ from EXT3 and EXT2?
In what situations would it be an appropriate file system to use over EXT3 or EXT2?
Find at least one more file system is supported in Linux .
Describe and compare it to the reiser file system as well as EXT3 and EXT2.
Note: I am not interested in any information regarding the author of the Reiser file systems criminal trial/disposition. This is purely a technical discussion.
4. Other File Systems Supported by Linux
The Linux Kernel supports many different file systems. Research file systems that are supported by the Linux Kernel and write up the details of three of them.
How are they different than the EXT3 or EXT2?
What was the motivation for implementing these file systems?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Note: EXT3, EXT2, NTFS, FAT, FAT32 and Reiser file systems cannot be used.
5. Cluster Computer OS Support
Investigate the topic of cluster computing in the context of operating systems.
What does an operating system need to provide to support using multiple processors or cluster computing?
What are the major problems the operating system has to solve to support cluster computing?
Identify and describe at least 3 operating systems that have clustering support and how it is implemented in each.
6. Real-Time Operating Systems
Explain the difference between a traditional operating system and a real-time operating system.
Identify and describe scenarios or environments in which a RTOS makes sense.
Also identify and compare at least three RTOS operating systems that are in wide use.
In addition to comparing them to each other, compare them to at least one mainstream OS to highlight the differences. Process scheduling is important here and should be discussed in detail.
7. Multimedia Operating Systems
Explain the difference between a traditional operating system and one that is designed to support multimedia.
Identify at least three multimedia operating systems (or modifications to traditional operating systems) that are used and how they differ from each other as well as a traditional operating system.
Process scheduling is important here and should be discussed in detail. Be sure and include detail about how multimedia files and streams are constructed and processed.