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I/O Hardware: Incredible Variety of I/O Devices Common Concepts

This document discusses input/output (I/O) hardware and software. It covers common I/O concepts like ports, buses, controllers, addresses and I/O instructions. It also describes polling, interrupts, direct memory access and the layered I/O interface in operating systems. Finally, it discusses blocking, non-blocking and asynchronous I/O, kernel I/O subsystems, error handling and improving I/O performance.

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Ian Conan Juanico
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61 views

I/O Hardware: Incredible Variety of I/O Devices Common Concepts

This document discusses input/output (I/O) hardware and software. It covers common I/O concepts like ports, buses, controllers, addresses and I/O instructions. It also describes polling, interrupts, direct memory access and the layered I/O interface in operating systems. Finally, it discusses blocking, non-blocking and asynchronous I/O, kernel I/O subsystems, error handling and improving I/O performance.

Uploaded by

Ian Conan Juanico
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I/O Hardware

Incredible variety of I/O devices


Common concepts:
Port connection point to the computer
Bus (daisy chain or shared direct access)
Controller (host adapter)
I/O instructions control devices
Devices have addresses, used by:
Direct I/O instructions
Memory-mapped I/O
Polling
Determines state of device
command-ready
busy
error
The busy-wait cycle is used to wait for I/O
from the device
Interrupts
CPU interrupt request line is triggered by
the I/O device
Interrupt handler services the interrupt
Maskable to ignore or delay some interrupts
Interrupt vector contains the address of the
correct handler
Based on priority
Some unmaskable
Interrupt mechanism can also be used for
exceptions
Interrupt Driven I/O Cycle
Direct Memory Access
Used to avoid programmed I/O for large
data transfers
Requires DMA controller
Bypasses CPU to transfer data directly
between I/O device and memory
Six step process to perform
DMA transfer
Application I/O Interface
The I/O interface is implemented using a
layered approach
I/O system calls encapsulate device
behaviors in generic classes
Device driver layer hides differences among
I/O controllers from kernel
Application I/O Interface (cont)
Devices vary in many dimensions
Character stream or block
Sequential or random access
Synchronous or asynchronous
Sharable or dedicated
Speed of operation
Read-write, read only, or write only
Block and Character Devices
Block devices include disk drives
Commands include read, write, seek
Raw I/O or file system access
Memory mapped file access possible
Character devices include keyboards, mice,
serial ports
Commands include get, put
Libraries layered on top allow line editing
Network Devices
They vary enough from block and character
devices to have their own interface
Unix and Windows/NT include socket
interfaces
Separates network protocol from network
operation
Includes select functionality
Approaches vary widely (pipes, FIFOs,
streams, queues, mailboxes)
Clocks and Timers
Provide
Current time,
Elapsed time,
Timer to trigger an operation
If a programmable interval timer is used for
timings, it can generate periodic interrupts
ioctl (on UNIX) covers odd aspects of I/O
such as clocks and timers
Blocking and Nonblocking I/O
Blocking - process suspended until I/O is
completed
Easy to use and understand
Insufficient for some needs
Nonblocking - I/O call returns as much as
available
User interface, data copy (buffered I/O)
Implemented via multi-threading
Returns quickly with count of bytes read or
written
Blocking and Nonblocking I/O
(cont)
Asynchronous - process runs while I/O
executes
Difficult to use
I/O subsystem signals process when I/O
completed
Kernel I/O Subsystem
Scheduling
Some I/O requests are reordered to reduce the
distance the disk arm travels
Some OSs try fairness
Buffering - store data in memory while
transferring between devices
To cope with device speed mismatch
To cope with device transfer size mismatch
To maintain copy semantics
Kernel I/O Subsystem (cont)
Caching - fast memory holding copy of data
Always just a copy
Key to performance
Spooling - hold output for a device
If device can serve only one request at a time
Printing is an example
Device reservation - provides exclusive
access to a device
System calls for allocation and deallocation
Watch out for deadlock
Error Handling
OS can recover from disk read, device
unavailable, transient write failures
Most return an error number or code when
I/O request fails
System error logs hold problem reports
Kernel Data Structures
Kernel keeps state information for I/O
components, including open file tables,
network connections, character device state
Many complex data structures are used to
track buffers, memory allocation, dirty
blocks
Some use object-oriented methods and
message passing to implement I/O
I/O Requests to Hardware
Operations
Consider reading a file from disk for a
process
Determine device holding file
Translate name to device representation
Physically read data from disk into buffer
Make data available to requesting process
Return control to process
Life Cycle of an I/O Request
Performance
I/O a major factor in system performance
Demands CPU to execute device driver, kernel
I/O code
Context switches due to interrupts
Data copying
Network traffic especially stressful
Intercomputer communications
Improving Performance
Reduce number of context switches
Reduce data copying
Reduce interrupts by using large transfers,
smart controllers, polling
Use DMA
Balance CPU, memory, bus, and I/O
performance for highest throughput

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