Configuring a multi-course lab for system-level projects

  • Authors:
  • Joel C. Adams;W. David Laverell

  • Affiliations:
  • Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI;Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Having students modify an actual operating system kernel or network protocol stack opens their eyes to what is going on "beneath the hood" of a computer. However student modifications to a system may result in an unstable computer. Because of this, giving students such experience has in the past required a lab and/or computers dedicated to the students in the system-level course, and computer science departments without such dedicated facilities have been unable to provide their students with system-level experience. In this paper, we present two ways of giving students system-level experience in a non-dedicated lab; one using commercial software (VMWare), and another using open-source freeware (User Mode Linux Kernel).