Undergraduate Operating Systems Course Research Articles

Xinu/WU: an improved PC-Xinu clone?

In teaching an undergraduate course in Operating Systems, it is instructive if the students have an actual operating system they can study and modify. Care should be taken, however, in selecting a system that the students can realistically be expected to understand. Xinu/WU retains the advantages of its parent PC-Xinu [Fossum 1987]; a small yet relatively complete operating system for the IBM PC, supplied with full source code and able to run within its development environment. Xinu/WU incorporates three particular enhancements: an improved implementation, integration into Borland International's Turbo C™ run-time environment, and more effective use of the windowing system. The conclusion is that Xinu/WU increases the possibility of using such a system in an undergraduate Operating Systems course. Two ways in which it can be utilized are presented.