Accessing I/O

The important components of any computer system are CPU, memory and I/O devices
(peripherals). The CPU fetches instructions (opcodes and operands/data) from memory,
processes them and stores results in memory.

Accessing I/O

AU May-03, 04, 07, 09, 13, Dec.-04, 06, 07, 10, 14

• The important components of any computer system are CPU, memory and I/O devices
(peripherals). The CPU fetches instructions (opcodes and operands/data) from memory,
processes them and stores results in memory. The other components of the computer system (I/O
devices) may be loosely called the Input/Output system.

• The main function of I/O system is to transfer information between CPU or memory and the
outside world.

• The important point to be noted here is, I/O devices (peripherals) cannot be connected directly
to the system bus. The reasons are discussed here.

1. A variety of peripherals with different methods of operation are available. So it would be

impractical to incorporate the necessary logic within the CPU to control a range of devices.

2. The data transfer rate of peripherals is often much slower than that of the memory or CPU. So
it is impractical to use the high speed system bus to communicate directly with the peripherals.

3. Generally, the peripherals used in a computer system have different data formats and word
lengths than that of CPU used in it.

• So to overcome all these difficulties, it is necessary to use a module in between system bus and
peripherals, called I/O module or I/O system, or I/O interface.

The functions performed by an I/O interface are:

1. Handle data transfer between much slower peripherals and CPU or memory.

2. Handle data transfer between CPU or memory and peripherals having different data formats
and word lengths.

3. Match signal levels of different I/O protocols with computer signal levels.

4. Provides necessary driving capabilities - sinking and sourcing currents.

Requirements of I/O System

• The I/O system if nothing but the hardware required to connect an I/O device to the bus. It is
also called I/O interface. The major requirements of an I/O interface are :

1. Control and timing

2. Processor communication

3. Device communication

4. Data buffering

5. Error detection

• The important blocks necessary in any I/O interface are shown in Fig. 8.6.1.

• As shown in the Fig. 8.6.1, I/O interface consists of data register, status/control register, address
decoder and external device interface logic.

• The data register holds the data being transferred to or from the processor.

• The status/control register contains information relevant to the operation of the I/O device.
Both data and status/control registers are connected to the data bus.
• Address lines drive the address decoder. The address decoder enables the device to recognize its
address when address appears on the address lines.

• The external device interface logic accepts inputs from address decoder, processor control lines
and status signal from the I/O device and generates control signals to control the direction and
speed of data transfer between processor and I/O devices.

• The Fig. 8.6.2 shows the I/O interface for input device and output device. Here, for simplicity
block schematic of I/O interface is shown instead of detail connections.
• The address decoder enables the device when its address appears on the address lines.

• The data register holds the data being transferred to or from the processor.

• The status register contains information relevant to the operation of the I/O device.

• Both the data and status registers are assigned with unique addresses and they are connected to
the data bus.

I/O Interfacing Techniques

I/O devices can be interfaced to a computer system I/O in two ways, which are called interfacing
techniques,

• Memory mapped I/O

• I/O mapped I/O

Memory mapped I/O

• In this technique, the total memory address space is partitioned and part of this space is devoted
to I/O addressing as shown in Fig. 8.6.3.

• When this technique is used, a memory reference instruction that causes data to be fetched from
or stored at address specified, automatically becomes an I/O instruction if that address is made
the address of an I/O port.

Advantage

• The usual memory related instructions are used for I/O related operations. The special I/O
instructions are not required.

Disadvantage

• The memory address space is reduced.

I/O mapped I/O

• If we do not want to reduce the memory address space, we allot a different I/O address space,
apart from total memory space which is called I/O mapped I/O technique as shown in Fig. 8.6.4.

Advantage

• The advantage is that the full memory address space is available.

Disadvantage

• The memory related instructions do not work. Therefore, processor can only use this mode if it
has special instructions for I/O related operations such as I/O read, I/O write.

Memory Mapped I/O, I/O Mapped I/O Comparison

Types of Data Transfer Techniques

• In I/O data transfer, the system requires the transfer of data between external circuitry and the
processor. Different ways of I/O data transfer are:

1. Program controlled I/O or polling control.

2. Interrupt program controlled I/O or interrupt driven I/O.

3. Hardware controlled I/O.

4. I/O controlled by handshake signals.

Program controlled I/O or polling control

• In program controlled I/O, the transfer of data is completely under the control of the processor
program. This means that the data transfer takes place only when an I/O transfer instructions
executed. In most of the cases it is necessary to check whether the device is ready for data
transfer or not. To check this, processor polls the status bit associated with the I/O device.

Interrupt program controlled I/O or interrupt driven I/O

• In interrupt program controlled approach, when a peripheral is ready to transfer data, it sends
an interrupt signal to the processor. This indicates that the I/O data transfer is initiated by the
external I/O device.

• When interrupted, the processor stops the execution of the program and transfers the program
control to an interrupt service routine.

• This interrupt service routine performs the data transfer.

• After the data transfer, it returns control to the main program at the point it was interrupted.

Hardware controlled I/O

• To increase the speed of data transfer between processors memory and I/O, the hardware
controlled I/O is used. It is commonly referred to as Direct Memory Access (DMA). The
hardware which controls this data transfer is commonly known as DMA controller.

• The DMA controller sends a HOLD signal to the processor to initiate data transfer. In response
to HOLD signal, processor releases its data, address and control buses to the DMA controller.
Then the data transfer is controlled at high speed by the DMA controller without the intervention
of the processor.

• After data transfer, DMA controller sends low on the HOLD pin, which gives the control of
data, address, and control buses back to the processor.

• This type of data transfer is used for large data transfers.

I/O Control by handshake signals

• The handshake signals are used to ensure the readiness of the I/O device and to synchronize the
timing of the data transfer. In this data transfer, the status of handshaking signals are checked
between the processor and an I/O device and when both are ready, the actual data is transferred.

Review Questions

1. What is the necessity of an interface? AU: Dec.-06, 07, Marks 2

2. What are the functions of a typical I/O interface? AU: May-07, 09, Marks 2

3. What are the functions performed by an I/O interface? AU: May-09, Marks 6

4. Explain the functions to be performed by a typical I/O interface with a typical input or output
interface. AU: May-07, Marks 8

5. Explain how I/O devices can be interfaced with a block diagram. AU: Dec.-07, Marks 8

6. Explain interface circuits. AU: May-13, Marks 8

7. Describe the various mechanism for accessing I/O devices. AU: May-09, Marks 16

8. Explain the following: Memory mapped I/O. AU: Dec.-10, Marks 4

9. Give comparison between memory mapped I/O and I/O mapped I/O. AU: May-03, 04, Dec.-
04, Marks 4

10. Compare I/O versus memory bus. AU: May-09, Marks 6

11. Distinguish between isolated and memory-mapped I/O. AU: May-13, Marks 2

12. Explain in detail about any two standard input and output interfaces required to connect the
I/O device to the bus. AU: Dec.-14, Marks 8