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OS access method DD Terminals

The document discusses various access methods for file information, including sequential and direct access, highlighting their operational differences. It also explains the role of device drivers in managing input and output for different devices, as well as the characteristics of terminals, including dumb and intelligent terminals. Additionally, it covers the functioning of video RAM in terminals and how input characters are processed and displayed.

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10 views8 pages

OS access method DD Terminals

The document discusses various access methods for file information, including sequential and direct access, highlighting their operational differences. It also explains the role of device drivers in managing input and output for different devices, as well as the characteristics of terminals, including dumb and intelligent terminals. Additionally, it covers the functioning of video RAM in terminals and how input characters are processed and displayed.

Uploaded by

doraemonxyz99
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Access Methods

• File stores information.


• When it is used this information must be accessed and read into computer
memory.
• There are several methods to access the information in the file.
• For example, we have sequential access and direct access.
Sequential access :
Current position
Beginning End
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Rewind Forward

Fig. Sequential access file


Sequential access :
• Most of the operations on file are reads and writes.
• Here the file is accessed sequentially.
• In sequential access, a program skip forward or backward n records.
• Sequential access is based upon a tape model of a file.

Current position
Beginning End
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Rewind Forward

Fig. Sequential access file


Direct access :
• Direct access is based upon a disk model of a file.
Block Block Block
0 1 2 • Here the file is viewed as a sequence of blocks or
records.
Block Block Block • In this methods, any block can be read or written.
3 ….. 9 • We may read block 14, then read block 53, and
write block 9. There are no restriction on order of
Block Block Block reading or writing.
14 …. 53
• Direct access is often used for large data bases.
• Other access methods can be built on top of a
Block Block Block
….. n n+1
direct access method.
• These involve construction of an index for the File.
• The index contains pointers to the various blocks,
• to find entry in file, we first search index and then
use pointer to directly access the files.
Device Driver
• The routines which performed input and output are important.
• Each I/O device has its own characteristics, requiring careful programming.
• A special subroutine was written for each I/O device such a subroutine is called
device driver.
• A device driver knows how the buffers, flags, registers, control bits and status bits
should be used for a particular device.
• Each different type of device has its own driver.
• A simple task, such as reading a character from device, involves complex
sequences of device specific operations.
• Rather than writing the code every time, the device driver was simply used from
library.

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https://www.youtube.com/c/ComputerScienceAcademy7
Terminal - I/O
• A terminal or visual display unit (VDU) is common I/O medium.
• Terminal hardware can be divided into two parts: the keyboard, which is used as
an input medium and the video screen which is used as output medium.
• The terminal can be a dumb terminal or an intelligent terminal.
• The dumb terminal consist of microprocessor and limited memory.
• It is responsible for basic input and output of characters.
• It is called dumb, because it does no processing on input characters.
• Intelligent terminal can carry out some processing on the input.
• Intelligent terminal has more powerful hardware and software.
Terminal - I/O
• The classification of terminals is shown in figure
Terminals

RS-232 Memory mapped

Hard copy Glass Alphanumeric Graphics card


(Character based) (Bit oriented)
• The memory mapped terminals have a video RAM.
• It is basically the memory that the terminal hardware itself has.
• A typical alphanumeric screen can display 25 lines, each consisting of 80 characters.
• i.e. 25 x 80 = 2000 characters. The required video RAM size is 2000 bytes.
• This is the case for monochrome IBM PC. Any time, all the 2000 characters stored in
video RAM are displayed on screen by video controller.
• When we enter data from keyboard, it is moved to Video RAM at appropriate places,
after which it is displayed. Attribute byte tells video controller how the character is to
be displayed.
Terminal - I/O
Attribute Data Attribute Data
Byte 0 Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 1

Byte Byte
1999 1999

Fig. Video RAM for monochrome IBM PC


• Attribute byte tells video controller how the character is to be displayed.
• Figure shows video RAM.
• It tells whether the corresponding data character is to be displayed bold,
underlined, blinking or reverse video.
• For bit oriented color graphics terminals we need 24 or 32 bits for each byte or bit.
This increases Video RAM capacity requirement
Terminal - I/O
• When a character is keyed in, the circuit in keyboard generates 8 bits ASCII /
EBCDIC Code.
• This character is stored in memory of terminal.
• This is further moved into buffers maintained by operating system.
• It is further sent to video RAM if it is to be displayed.
• The operating system maintains two separate buffers for input and output
operations.

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