FIT2134 Computing systems 2: Architecture and operating systems

This unit provides a thorough integrated study of how programs are executed and controlled on real computing systems linking machine organisation, memory hierarchy, and operating-system mechanisms into one coherent view. It covers data representation, processor organisation, assembly-level ideas, caching and virtual memory, processes and threads, scheduling, synchronisation, file systems, and resource management, with attention to performance, correctness, and system-level trade-offs. You will learn how software interacts with hardware and operating-system services, how system design affects efficiency and reliability, and how to reason about behaviour beyond the source-code level. Through practical analysis and low-level programming activity, the unit grounds theoretical understanding in system reality.