Operating Systems: Design and Implementation (Second Edition) [Hardcover]

Andrew S. Tanenbaum (Author), Albert S. Woodhull (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0136386776 | ISBN-13: 978-0136386773 | Edition: 2nd

Most books on operating systems deal with theory while ignoring practice. While the usual principles are covered in detail, the book describes a small, but real UNIX-like operating system: MINIX. The book demonstrates how it works while illustrating the principles behind it. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation Second Edition provides the MINIX source code. The relevant selections of the MINIX code are described in detail. When it first came out, MINIX caused something of a revolution. Within weeks, it had its own newsgroup on USENET, with 40,000 people. Most wanted to make MINIX bigger and fancier. Instead, Linux was created. That has become quite popular, very large, and complicated. MINIX, on the other hand, has remained small and suitable for instruction and example. The book has been revised to include updates in MINIX, which started out as a v 7 unix clone for a floppy-disk only 8088. It is now aimed at 386, 486, and pentium machines and is based on the international posix standard instead of on v7. There are now also versions of MINIX for the Macintosh and SPARC available. Professional programmers will find this book to be a valuable resource and reference book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book offers a unique and carefully integrated combination of principles and practice. While the usual principles are covered in detail, the book also describes a small, but real UNIX-like operating system: MINIX. It shows how it works and illustrates the principles behind it. By using MINIX, students learn principles and then can apply them in hands-on system design projects.

From the Back Cover

Most books on operating systems deal with theory while ignoring practice. While the usual principles are covered in detail, the book describes a small, but real UNIX-like operating system: MINIX. The book demonstrates how it works while illustrating the principles behind it. Operating Systems: Design and Implementation Second Edition provides the MINIX source code. The relevant selections of the MINIX code are described in detail. When it first came out, MINIX caused something of a revolution. Within weeks, it had its own newsgroup on USENET, with 40,000 people. Most wanted to make MINIX bigger and fancier. Instead, Linux was created. That has become quite popular, very large, and complicated. MINIX, on the other hand, has remained small and suitable for instruction and example. The book has been revised to include updates in MINIX, which started out as a v 7 unix clone for a floppy-disk only 8088. It is now aimed at 386, 486, and pentium machines and is based on the international posix standard instead of on v7. There are now also versions of MINIX for the Macintosh and SPARC available. Professional programmers will find this book to be a valuable resource and reference book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 939 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2nd edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0136386776
• ISBN-13: 978-0136386773
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > APIs & Operating Environments > Operating Systems Theory

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best OS books out there November 3, 1999

By Geogia Tech Student

Format:Hardcover

First off, don't be fooled by people who claim this to be an "easy read". It isn't ... reading the entire book will take weeks, as the text is packed with information, not to mention exercises following each section. That being said, I highly recommend the book. It provides a thorough introduction to operating systems basics, from scheduling to terminals, along with source code. Don't expect to absorb it all at once!

45 of 52 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to operating systems March 30, 2006

By W. Faught

Format:Hardcover

This book is written by Tanenbaum, the main guy behind Minix, which is what Linux was based on. It provides good overviews for basic OS concepts like memory management, file systems, processes, etc. The concepts in this book book are intimately tied to examples of the Minix OS, which is a good thing.

To those who would rather see examples from Linux: Minix is a compact and modular OS, which is why it's a good choice for examples. The book contains the entire source code at the back for easy reference. Yes, the OS is that small. That's a good thing when you're trying to figure out how virtual memory works or what have you. You'd be lost trying to learn this stuff from Linux. Above everything else, the code is ***well-commented*** compared to Linux, a major plus. You won't find any "/* major hack */" comments, either. ;) Minix leaves out all the crap that Microsoft and Linux throw into the kernel that make it unstable in the first place. Learn about the bells and whistles later when you can do the basics.

I encountered two instances where the book wasn't updated to reflect changes in the OS, which were annoying to deal with. Also, I found a spelling or punctuation error about every ten pages, which was annoying for such a pricey book. Overall, however, the book is extremely usable and understandable. It's easy to pick up concepts from this text.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent text book, well written and informative February 10, 2003

By sir_isaac_newton

Format:Hardcover

This was the text for an OS course that I took for my Masters. We had to implement 11 significant OS features for Minix (e.g. floppy disk cache, VGA driver, interprocess communication server,...) -- bugs were unacceptable (i.e. fail), as OSs must work. This class was 4 times more work that an other class I took for my Masters but I learned so much. I was already a very experienced Unix programmer when I took this, so I found it facinating to finally see what was under the hood (Minix/Unix is surprisingly small an compact -- very elegant). Tanenbaum is a real authority on the subject of operating systems and has a very engaging style. Probably the best computer science text book that I have read (I read this cover to cover, not just scanning but really reading). There is room for improvement though: the format could benefit from being updated, I had to use a lot of high-lighter. Clearer separation and indexing of key theories and sections would help. The OS basics are still relevant today (and could perhaps benefit from some expansion/clarification). I believe Tanenbaum has brought out new books since that go into some more contemporary / more advance areas.