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Price: $18.00 Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.43
EAN: 9780201591132
Edition: 5
ISBN: 0201591138
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 888
Publication Date: January 15, 1998
Publisher: Wiley
Studio: Wiley
Alternate Versions: Click to Display
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
Operating systems are large and complex, and yet must function with near-absolute reliability--that's why they're a class unto themselves in the field of software development. Since its first release 20 years ago, "the dinosaur book"--Operating System Concepts by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, and Greg Gagne--has been a valuable reference for designers and implementers of operating systems. The newly released sixth edition of this book maintains the volume's authority with new sections on thread management, distributed processes, and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). There's also information on the workings of the latest crop of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows 2000, Linux, FreeBSD, and compact operating systems for handheld devices.
This book is concerned with the design of operating systems, which is to say it enumerates the problems that pop up in the creation of efficient systems and explores alternative ways of dealing with them, detailing the advantages and shortcomings of each. For example, in their chapter on scheduling CPU activity, the authors explain several algorithms (first-come, first-served, and round-robin scheduling, among others) for allocating the capacity of single and multiple processors among jobs. They highlight the relative advantages of each, and explain how several real-life operating systems solve the problem. They then present the reader with exercises (this book is essentially a university textbook) that inspire thought and discussion. --David Wall
Topics covered: The problems faced by designers of system software for electronic computers, and strategies that have been developed over the past 20 years to address (and, in some cases, solve) them. Problems of CPU scheduling, memory allocation, paging, processes and threads, storage management, distributed processes and storage mechanisms, and security are all discussed thoroughly and with many authoritative references.
Product Description:
This best-selling book, now in its fifth edition, provides a solid theoretical foundation for understanding operating systems. Authors Abraham Silberschatz and Peter Galvin discuss key concepts that are applicable to a variety of systems. They also present a large number of examples taken from common operating systems, including Windows and Solaris 2. This book thus teaches general notions in operating systems while giving the teacher and students the flexibility to choose the implementation system. New in this Edition: A section on I/O Systems comprises three chapters on I/O Systems, Secondary-Storage Structure, and Tertiary-Storage Structure. Two case studies illustrate Windows NT and Linux. Chapters on Memory Management, Virtual Memory, Network Structures, and Security have been updated significantly. Online version of the case-study chapter on Mach and of the appendix on the Nachos operating-system project are in place.
This edition of Operating-System Concepts retains the high-quality presentation of previous editions. This book is perfectly suited both for students and for practitioners (such as systems programmers) who want to learn about operating systems. The modern examples serve to reinforce the concepts.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is a review of the 5th and 6th editions of Operating Systems Concepts, by Avi Silberschatz and Peter Galvin; Greg Gagne was their co-author on the 6th edition. More recent editions are available which I haven't yet read. For readers of this review, the main advantage of the 5th and 6th editions is that you can buy them very cheaply here on Amazon.com from a 3rd-party bookseller. For example, at this very moment, I see that a used copy of the 6th edition can be picked up for only $2.48 before shipping and handling. That is the bargain of year! If you can afford a newer edition, by all means, go for it.
Anyway, even in spite of their having been superseded by more recent editions, the 5th and 6th editions are each an excellent introduction to operating systems concepts. It is to be hoped that CIS and MIS majors will use this book in their introductory course on operating systems, instead of a book that focuses only on Windows. IT, MIS and networking professionals whose ... Read More
Rating: -
Many years ago, I was contacted by a desperate department head in need of someone to teach operating systems. With only two weeks to go before the class started, he was beginning to suffer from a case of the jitters. I agreed to teach the class and this was the book that had already been selected for the course.
Through the course of the class, I never had any reason to complain about the selection. I found the material well presented and while I had to do the usual explanation and clarifications in class, there was nothing that I considered beyond the norm. The coverage was thorough and when I needed to select exercises for the students, I took them directly from the book and only occasionally modified them to emphasize a particular point.
After examining other operating systems texts, I still consider this one among the best, at least for its' time.
Rating:  -
Not a very good book. Had to buy it for a class.
Rating: -
This book does a good job in keeping up with the Title, "OS Concepts". I won't go in detail justifying that, as it's already been done by several before me.
However, one point worth mentioning is that it's still a concepts book. To be a real programmer / computer science person, one needs to implement the concepts. In that regard, I'd recommed the book " Operating Systems: Design & Implementation by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Albert S. Woodhull". That way you'll know what the code looks like.
This book is great to start with and learn how an OS works. "NO CODE INSIDE THOUGH"
Rating:  -
This book does a great job of presenting all details of operating system design and operation. When appropriate, the authors point out how Linux, Solaris or Windows implements a given topic. This is valuable for software developers who work on these platform and need to understand how the scheduler is going to react if you spawn new threads/processes.
The one bad thing I can say is that some examples are too general and do not convey the proper detail. This is just a minor distraction and does not take away from the book's overall effectiveness.
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