Operating System

Prof. Manish Kumar, Assistant Professor

Computer Science & Engineering
CHAPTER - 7
I/O SYSTEMS
 I/O DEVICE

I/O Device are of two Types:

• Block Device : A block device is one with which the driver
communicates by sending entire blocks of data. For example, Hard
disks, USB cameras, Disk-On-Key etc.
• Character Device : A character device is one with which the driver
communicates by sending and receiving single characters (bytes,
octets). For example, serial ports, parallel ports, sounds cards etc.
 DEVICE CONTROLLER
• Device 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.
• Interaction with a device controller
is managed through a device driver.
Device Controller[1]
 DEVICE CONTROLLER
• It is a single chip in the computer that controls the signals on the wires
of a serial port.
• Any device connected to the computer is connected by
a plug and socket, and the socket is connected to a device controller
• Each device controller has a local buffer and a command register.
• It communicates with the CPU by interrupts. A device's controller
plays an important role in the operation of that device.
Image source : Google

• It functions as a bridge between the device and the operating system.

EXAMPLES OF DEVICE CONTROLLER

Network card
Disk controller
DVD-ROM controller
USB
Serial port
Sound card
 MEMORY MAPPED I/O
• It is the communication method among CPU, Memory and I/O
• This configuration uses same bus and same control signals but unique
address space between memory and I/O. Same address space is
shared by memory and I/O devices. But some addresses represent
memory cells, while others represents registers in I/O devices
• In this mechanism, whenever the CPU generates the memory
request. Even the control signals are matching but address space is
Image source : Google

not matching therefore only one node can perform the operation.
 MEMORY MAPPED I/O
•Same address space is shared by
memory and I/O devices. But some
addresses represent memory cells,
while others represents registers in
I/O devices.
•In this mechanism, whenever the
CPU generates the memory request.
Even the control signals are
matching but address space is not
matching therefore only one node
Image source : Google
can perform the operation.
 I/O DEVICE
Advantages of memory mapped I/O:
• It makes programming simpler.
• It does not have special commands to access I/O devices.
Disdvantages of memory mapped I/O:
• Memory utilization is poor.
• It is suitable only when the processor consist the limited numbers of
I/O ports.
Image source : Google
 DMA(DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS)
•A special unit may be provided to
allow transfer of block of data directly
between external device and the main
memory, without continuous
intervention by the processor. This
approach is called Direct Memory
Access (DMA).
•This means that once reading and
writing has begun, the remainder of the
data can be transferred to and from
DMA[3]
memory without processor (CPU)
intervention.
 DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS
•DMA is particularly useful on devices like
disks, where many bytes of information can
be transferred in single I/O operations.
When used in conjunction with an interrupt,
CPU is notified only after the entire block of
data has been transferred.
•Direct Memory Access is an I/O technique
that allows a control unit to directly access
main memory.Without DMA, the processor
is responsible for the physical movement of
Image source : Google
data between main memory and device.
 WORKING OF DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS
•During execution of first part of the user
program, the CPU initializes the DMA with
control signals, IO address, Memory starting
address and the count value. Then the CPU
is busy with execution of the part1(user
program part1). Simultaneously the DMA
initializes the operation to the
corresponding IO device by sending the
DMA request signal. After Preparing the
data, the I/O device sends the DMA ACK
signal to the DMA. DMA Working[5]
 WORKING OF DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS
• Whenever the DMA module receives the ACK signal from the IO, it enables the
HOLD signal for the purpose of gain the control of the bus and it is waiting for the
HOLD ACK signal.
• When the processor receives the HOLD signal it enables the HOLD ACK (HLDA)
signal.
• Whenever DMA receives HLDA signal, it transfer the data from the IO device to
memory until the count becomes zero.
• Until transfer the data, the CPU is in the blocked state. After completion of data
transfer operation, the DMA reestablish the bus connection to the CPU.
 MODES OF DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS
•Burst mode
•Cycle stealing mode
•Blocked mode

Image source : Google

 MODES OF DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS
• Burst mode: In the burst mode of DMA, it transfer a bulk amount of
data from the IO to M/Y, after receiving the HLDA signal.
• Cycle stealing mode: The DMA forcefully suspends the CPU operation
and take the control of bus that means without receiving the hold
acknowledgement(HLDA) signal, the DMA gains the control of bus. In
this mode, DMA transfers the very important data to the memory
and reestablish the connection to the CPU. Image source : Google

• Blocked mode : DMA transfers the data in the form of blocks.

 DMA
Advantages of DMA:
• High transfer rates.
• Fewer CPU cycles for each transfer.
Disdvantages of DMA:
• Expensive system.
• Synchronization mechanism must be provided in order to avoid
accessing non-updated information from RAM.
Image source : Google
 POLLING VS INTERRUPT
• A computer must have a way of detecting the arrival of any type of
input. There are two ways that this can happen, known
as polling and interrupts.
• Polling I/O : The process of periodically checking status of the device
to see if it is time for the next I/O operation, is called polling.
• The I/O device simply puts the information in a Status register, and
the processor must come and get the information. Image source : Google
 POLLING VS INTERRUPT
• Interrupt I/O : An interrupt is a signal to the microprocessor from a

device that requires attention.

• A device controller puts an interrupt signal on the bus when it needs
CPU’s attention when CPU receives an interrupt, It saves its current
state and invokes the appropriate interrupt handler using the
interrupt vector (addresses of OS routines to handle various events).
When the interrupting device has been dealt with, the CPU continues
Image source : Google

with its original task as if it had never been interrupted.

 SHARED VS DEDICATED DEVICE
• Dedicated device: are those device, which can be shared by only one
user at a time for ex. Printer and CD-ROM drives.

• Shared Devices: Shared devices are those devices which can be

shared by concurrent processes without any deadlock. For ex- Disks,
Ethernet port.

Image source : Google

 PRINCIPLE OF I/O SOFTWARE
GOALS OF I/O SOFTWARE:
• Device Independence: Device independence enables I/O devices to be treated in a
standard, uniform way. For instance, how an application can open a file on a disk
without knowing what kind of disk it is, and how new disks and other devices can
be added to a computer without the operating system being disrupted.
• Error Handling: An operating system that uses protected memory can guard
against many kinds of hardware and application errors. There are several aspects to
error handling including: Detection, correction and reporting.
Image source : Google
 PRINCIPLE OF I/O SOFTWARE

• Buffering: A buffer is a memory area that stores data while they are
transferred between two devices or between a device and an
application.
• Buffering is done for the following reasons One reason is to cope with
a speed mismatch between the producer and consumer of a data
stream.
Image source : Google
 I/O DEVICE
Interrupt: Interrupt is unusual event of disturb.
• The CPU hardware has a wire called the interrupt request line that
the CPU senses after executing every instruction.
• The CPU responds to the interrupt only after completion of the
current instruction execution.

Image source : Google

 I/O DEVICE
Interrupt Handler:
• The interrupt handler determines the cause of the interrupt and
performs the necessary processing, then executes a return from
interrupt instruction to return the CPU to the execution state prior to
the interrupt. the device controller raises an interrupt by asserting a
signal on the interrupt request line, then, CPU catches the interrupt
and dispatches to the interrupt handler, and the handler clears the
Image source : Google

interrupt by servicing the device.

•Instruction cycle with interrupt consist of three sub cycles:

1. Fetch cycle

2. Execution cycle

3. Interrupt cycle

Image source : Google

 I/O DEVICE
Interrupt flag/pin:
• In the processor environment, interrupt flag is present to enable or disable the
interrupt. When the INTR (interrupt) flag is in enable state, there is a need of
interrupt cycle to service the interrupt.
• Otherwise, after completion of current instruction, the CPU fetch the next current
instruction from the memory based on the program counter. In the processor, INTR
pin is used. It holds the status of interrupt .
• The CPU responds to the interrupt only after completion of the current instruction
execution. Image source : Google
 INTERRUPT HANDLING
• Whenever, the CPU recognize any interrupt after completion of
current instruction, it push the program counter value onto the
stack then loads the program counter with vector address.
• Then the control is transferred to the interrupt subprogram. It
continue the execution until “IRET” instruction.

Image source : Google

 INTERRUPT HANDLING
• Whenever “IRET” instruction is
executed by the processor. It
invokes the pop operation to
restore the program counter with
return address.
• Now the CPU is fetching the next
instruction from the main memory.
• The entry point/address of interrupt
subprogram is called vector address. Interrupt handling[6]
 DEVICE DRIVERS
• A device driver is a program that controls a particular type of device that is
attached to user computer. There are device drivers for printers, displays, CD-ROM
readers, hard disk and so on.
• A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating
systems and other computer programs to access hardware functions without
needing to know precise details of the hardware being used.
• A device driver typically communicates with the device through the computer
bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware connects.
• Drivers are hardware-dependent and operating-system-specific.

Image source : Google

 PURPOSE OF DEVICE DRIVERS
• Device drivers simplify programming by acting as translator between a hardware
device and the applications or operating systems that use it.
• Programmers can write the higher-level application code independently of
whatever specific hardware the end-user is using.
• For example, a high-level application for interacting with a serial port may simply
have two functions for "send data" and "receive data". At a lower level, a device
driver implementing these functions would communicate to the particular serial
port controller installed on a user's computer.
Image source : Google
 PARTS OF DEVICE DRIVERS

• Device Specific: This portion of a device remains the same across all operating
system and is more about understanding and decoding the device data than
software programming. A data sheet for a device is a document with technical
details of the device, including its operation, performance, programming etc.
• OS specific: This portion is tightly coupled with the OS mechanisms of user
interfaces thus differentiates a linux device driver from windows device driver.

Image source : Google

 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF DEVICE DRIVER
• Serial port drivers
• Network device drivers
• Flash
• Bus driver

Image source : Google

 DEVICE INDEPENDENT I/O SOFTWARE
• The device independent code contains most of the I/O functionality,
but not most of the code since there are many drivers
• All drivers do the same thing in slightly different ways due to slightly
different controllers. Functions of device independent I/O software:
 Support for error reporting.
 Provides uniform interfacing for device drivers.
 Perform allocation and releasing dedicated devices
Image source : Google

 Software provides a device independent block size

 BUFFERING
• “Buffering” is a technique by which the device manager can keep
slower I/O devices busy during times when a process is not requiring
I/O operations
• Input buffering: is a technique of having the input device read
information into the primary memory before the process requests it
• Output buffering: is the technique of saving information in memory
and then writing to the device while the process continues execution
Image source : Google
 TYPES OF BUFFERING
• Single Buffering
• Double buffering
• Circular buffering
• No buffering

Image source : Google

 REFERENCES
[1] Device Controllers. Tutorialspoint.
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/operating_system/os_io_hardware.html
[2] Memory Mapped. Tutorials point
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/operating_system/os_io_hardware.html
[3] DMA. Tutorialspoint
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/operating_system/os_io_hardware.html
[4] Block Diagram of DMA.
http://inputoutput5822.weebly.com/direct-memory-access.html
[5] Working of DMA
https://binaryterms.com/direct-memory-access-dma.html
[6] Interrupt handling
https://www.cs.uic.edu/~jbell/CourseNotes/OperatingSystems/13_IOSystes.html