This unit provides an introduction to the knowledge and skills required for the design, writing and support of technical software and other such functions normally falling within the role of the systems programmer. It provides for detailed study of a systems programming environment and its application to systems programming tasks.

This unit introduces students to fundamental data structures and algorithms used in computing. The material covered forms the basis for further studies in programming and software engineering in later units. The unit focuses on the ideas of data abstraction, object-oriented programming, and software reuse. Issues relating to computational complexity of algorithms are addressed throughout the session. Topics covered include: the fundamental abstract data types (lists, stacks, queues, trees, hash tables, graphs); recursion; complexity of algorithms; internal and external sorting and searching algorithms; file structures; and B trees.

This unit provides an introduction to the theory and practice of the internal structure, implementation and functionality of operating systems. The unit is relevant not only for systems programmers, but also for applications developers who need to understand how operating systems control computer hardware, and how they provide convenience, efficiency and security for application development and implementation.

This unit covers concepts and design of, and programming for distributed systems. It builds on basic network communication protocols (specifically IP) to cover client-server programming using both the system level socket interface and remote procedure calls. It also examines large-scale distributed system architectures, particularly those based on distributed objects, and considers the complexities inherent in distributed transactions. Key concepts covered include data and algorithmic distribution, idempotent protocols, stateless and stateful servers, and distributed system transparency. Illustrative case studies are included.

This unit complements and extends the work already done in Systems Programming 1. It covers advanced topics in programming that are directly relevant to systems level application design and implementation. As such it addresses the main concepts, principles, and techniques for system level programs that utilise virtual memory, dynamic link libraries, asynchronous I/O, and multi-threading that can support high levels of concurrency. The unit also emphasises and builds a sound understanding of kernel level objects, as well as error and exception handling techniques, and focuses primarily on using the low-level functionality exposed by the operating system's C/C++ language API.