KERNEL I/O INTERFACE

A Computer System, in addition to the CPU and Main Memory, Input/Output (I/O)
is a major functional subsystem. Input/Output System provides a mechanism for
communication between the CPU and the external world. I/O subsystem
connects the external devices like Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Joystick, Pendrive
and internal devices like Hard Disk, CD to the Computer. Internet connection is
also part of the I/O. We know the functioning principles and characteristics of
these devices are widely different from each other. So, what can simplify the
technical issues involved in connecting these wide varieties of devices? The
answer is to establish applicable communication standard(s).
The I/O communication is simplified to a set of requirements consisting of three
parts of Where, What and How? i.e.
 Where? - Identification of the device under communication – The device
and location within the device Ex: Select the Printer.
 What? - What is the type of communication? i.e sender? Receiver?
(Read/Write?)
 How? - How much to be communicated? ( Number of bytes to/from
Memory/file)
The communication is categorized as Intra System and Inter System
Communications.
I/O Communication and I/O Controller
( 0 users )
In a Computer System, in addition to the CPU and Main Memory, Input/Output
(I/O) is a major functional subsystem. Input/Output System provides a
mechanism for communication between the CPU and the external world. I/O
subsystem connects the external devices like Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor,
Joystick, Pendrive and internal devices like Hard Disk, CD to the Computer.
Internet connection is also part of the I/O. We know the functioning principles
and characteristics of these devices are widely different from each other. So,
what can simplify the technical issues involved in connecting these wide
varieties of devices? The answer is to establish applicable communication
standard(s).
The I/O communication is simplified to a set of requirements consisting of three
parts of Where, What and How? i.e.
 Where? - Identification of the device under communication – The device
and location within the device Ex: Select the Printer.
 What? - What is the type of communication? i.e sender? Receiver?
(Read/Write?)
 How? - How much to be communicated? ( Number of bytes to/from
Memory/file)
The communication is categorized as Intra System and Inter System
Communications.
Whether it is Intra or Inter System Communication, a medium is required to
carry the communication and also a protocol or standard to carry out the
communication successfully. The most familiar one is the Internet as a Wired or
Wireless communication. It has protocol standards defined by IEEE. Similarly,
every device has a communication protocol which is called the Interface
Standard.
The medium and the protocol together is called a BUS. A Bus is a shared
communication link consisting of a set of connecting cables/wires which carry
signals that are required as per the Interface Standard’s definition. A bus
facilitates to achieve the “Where- What –How” of the Communication amongst
the various subsystems. We will focus on Internal communication carried out by
System bus. A system Bus has three components Address, Data and Control
Signals which we have marked many diagrams in the previous chapters (refer
figure 20.1)
Figure 20.1 System Bus (Internal and Intra)

Bus Design Characteristics

Few of the important characteristics of interest are Bus Type, Bus Width, Clock
Rate, Protocol and Arbitration mechanism.
 Bus Type - Dedicated or Multiplexed
Dedicated - The address and data lines are separate.
Multiplexed - The address and data lines are sent on the same physical
cable but at different timings.
 Width – The number of lines that carry Data and Address. More width on
address lines increases the addressing range. More width on data lines
increases Data Bandwidth.
 Access Protocol - Synchronous or Asynchronous
Asynchronous
Synchronous
One of the There is no
 Asynchronous
Synchronous
control line is common clock
Clock

All activities in The bus transfers

the bus are information based
synchronized to on handshake
the clock and at protocol.
predefined
clock cycles

Useful when all Since there is a

the devices in handshake, any
the bus are in device may
the same speed interact with any
range. other device.

Internal system Generally used for

bus is an slow speed device
example of communications.
synchronous
bus.

 Arbitration - The protocol to gain access to the bus amongst the eligible
competing devices is called bus arbitration. During the bus operation,
there is a Bus Master (Initiator) and a Bus Slave (Responder). Thus a
device wanting to initiate communication has to become bus master.
Always, the communication happens between two devices. Since there
are more devices connected on a bus, there is a bus arbitrator and an
identified arbitration mechanism.
 Clock Rate – The speed of the bus is determined by the Synchronous
clock. It is a design decision to fix the clock rate.
There are few other physical parameters like how the wires are to be run, what
type of connectors to be used, length of the wires, etc. The electrical
characteristics define the voltage levels of the signals and the power source.
Other Popular internal buses are Peripheral Component Interface Bus (PCI), PCI
Express, Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), VME bus, etc. A Larger variety of
standards are there for the External bus which connects Peripherals. To name a
few External buses, SCSI, SATA, ATA, USB, FireWire, Centronics, GPIB, IEEE, etc.
Bridges are used for connecting buses with different purpose and protocols.
I/O System Organization
The CPU executes a program in a Fetch-Decode –Execute mode by bringing
instructions from Memory. So your program has to get loaded into memory,
from the Disk. Generally, both program and executables file is stored in the
Disk. This is where the I/O comes into the picture. It is interesting to know the
functional requirements of I/O communication with CPU and Memory.
I/O is also a Slave component in the computer. An I/O operation is initiated by
CPU and the I/O controllers take care of transferring and completing the I/O
operation. An analogy to this is a classroom environment, wherein a teacher
(CPU) assigns work; the student (I/O) submits the solution in a Notebook or
uploads at the prescribed place(Memory). Probably the student informs the
teacher that it is done or it is done for some reason(Interrupt).
I/O Controllers
 The devices operate at wide-ranging data transfer speed and also many
different interface standards. The Keyboard, Mouse have very small data
rates and are asynchronous in data transfer to computer. Disk, Solid State
Disks have high data rates. USB has a mediocre data rate. And we know
each one has a different connector and interface standard.
 It is overloading on the part of CPU to deal with these devices directly. I/O
controllers play a bridging role between CPU, Memory and I/O Device by
taking care of all kinds of communication.
 Due to heterogeneity of the devices, each device /type of interface
requires an I/O Controller (Refer figure 20.1)
 I/O controllers also act as a buffer during data transfer
A data transfer from an I/O device involves:
 Initiate the operation (i.e. addressing the device)
 Direct the device (i.e. communicate the operation to be done and control
the data transfer)
 Closing of the IO operations ( i.e notifying the CPU that it is done or not
done with status).
To do the above, each IO Controller will typically have Data Register(s), Status
Register(s), Control Register(s), Address decoding logic and Control Circuitry as
in figure 20.2. The I/O Controller is connected to the system bus. Whenever the
I/O controller wants to use the bus, it has to contend and obtain. All
communication from the CPU and Memory happens via these registers shown in
the diagram. These registers are given a unique address for each I/O controller.

I/O SUBSYSTEM
The Input/Output (I/O) subsystem is a crucial component of a computer’s
architecture that manages the communication between the computer’s
central processing unit (CPU) and its peripheral devices. Here’s a summary of
its key aspects:

Purpose: The I/O subsystem facilitates the transfer of data between the CPU
and various I/O devices like keyboards, mice, monitors, printers, and storage
devices1.
Function: It handles all input-output operations of the computer system,
allowing us to communicate with the computer and vice versa.

Peripheral Devices: These are the input or output devices connected to the
computer, also known as peripherals. They are designed to read information
into or out of the memory unit upon command from the CPU.

Interfaces: Special hardware components called interfaces exist between the

CPU and peripherals to control or manage the input-output transfers. They
convert system bus signals to a format acceptable to the device.

Modes of Data Transfer: Data transfer can occur in several modes, including
Programmed I/O, Interrupt Initiated I/O, and Direct Memory Access (DMA).

Programmed I/O: Involves the CPU directly controlling the data transfer to
and from the peripheral devices.

Interrupt Initiated I/O: Uses interrupts to signal the CPU when a device is
ready for data transfer, allowing the CPU to perform other tasks in the
meantime.

Direct Memory Access: Allows peripherals to directly read/write to memory

without CPU intervention, improving efficiency.

This subsystem is essential for the computer’s operation, as it provides the

means for inputting data into the system and outputting results to the user