CONTROLLER.
A controller is a collection of electronics that can operate a port, a bus, or a device. A serial-port
controller is an example of a simple device controller. This is a single chip in the computer that
controls the signals on the wires of a serial port.
The SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus controller is often implemented as a separate
circuit board (a host adapter) that plugs into the computer. It contains a processor, microcode,
and some private memory to enable it to process the SCSI protocol messages. Some devices
have their own built-in controllers.
The SCSI Bus Controller, facilitates communication between the host computer and SCSI
devices. These devices can include hard drives, scanners, printers, and other peripherals.
An advantage of SCSI is that you can connect several peripherals to one host adapter, using
only one slot in the bus. Here are some key points about the SCSI Bus Controller:
FUNCTION:
The SCSI Bus Controller connects to the computer’s bus and
manages the flow of data between the host system and SCSI devices attached to it. It
interprets commands from the system bus, translates them into SCSI commands, and
communicates with the connected devices.
DEVICE CONNECTIONS:
A SCSI controller typically supports connections tomultiple SCSI devices, ranging from hard
disks and tape drives to CD-ROMdrives and scanners. The number of devices that can be
connected depends onthe specific controller, with options for both internal and external
devices.
DATA TRANSFER:
When a request for data access is made by the host system, it issent to the SCSI controller.
The controller then processes this request, sends outthe appropriate commands to the target
device, retrieves the data from thedevice, and transfers it back to the host system for further
processing.
An illustration of an SCSI Bus Controller and how it works.
I/O port.
Input/Output port: An I/O port is a socket on a computer that a cable is plugged into. The port
connects the CPU to a peripheral device via a hardware interface or to the network via a
network interface.
An I/O port typically consists of four registers, called the STATUS, CONTROL, DATA-IN and
DATA OUT registers.
A TYPICAL ILLUSTRATION OF I/O PORTS:
S REGISTER AND DESCRIPTION.
N
1. Status Register: The status register contains bits that can be read by the host. These
bits indicate states such as whether the current command has completed, whether a
byte is available to be read from the data-in register, and whether there has been a
device error
2. Control Register: The control register can be written by the host to start a command or
to change the mode of a device. For instance, a certain bit in the control register of a
serial port chooses between full-duplex and half-duplex communication, another enables
parity checking, a third bit sets the word length to 7 or 8 bits, and other bits select one of
the speeds supported by the serial port.
3. Data-in Register: The data-in register is read by the host to get input.
4. Data-out Register: The data-out register is written by the host to send output.
