Operating Systems

Lecture 12 : Input-Output Systems

I/O and Operating Systems

• Controlling input/output devices is complicated by

the wide variety of devices.
• The variety of different methods used to control
these devices comprise the I/O subsystem.
• This wide variety of devices conflict the push
toward the standardization of interfaces, leading to
the use of device driver modules.
 Device Management Organization

Application Process
API

File Manager

Device Driver
Hardware
Interface
Command Status Data
Device Controller

I/O Hardware
SCSI
Monitor Processor Bus disks
cache
Graphics Bridge/Memory SCSI
Controller Controller memory Controller

PCI Bus
Expansion bus
IDE Disk interface Keyboard
Controller
Controller
Expansion Bus
Parallel Serial
disks Port Port
 Device Controllers : An Example

The NEC PD 765 disk controller has a 16-

command language, using 1 to 9 bytes in a
device register. Commands include:
- Reading and writing data
- Moving the disk arm
- Formatting tracks
- Initializing, calibrating, sensing and resetting
the controller and its drives.

Using A Device Controller

READ and WRITE commands require parameters

such as disk block address, # of sectors per track,
recording mode, intersector gap spacing, etc.
The PD 765 returns 23 status and error fields in 7
bytes.
 I/O Port Addresses

I/O Address Range Device

000-00F DMA Controller
020-021 Interrupt Controller
040-043 Timer
200-20F Game Controller
2F8-2FF Secondary Serial Port
320-32F Hard Disk Controller
378-37F Parallel Port
3D0-3DF Graphics Controller
3F0-3F7 Floppy Disk Controller
3F8-3FF Primary Serial Port

Typical I/O Port

• The typical I/O port consists of 4 registers:
– Status – contains bits read by the host system.
– Control – contains bits written by the host
system
– Data-in – read by the host as input
– Data-out – written by the host as output
Using Polling To Start An I/O Operation
write(dev… , … )

Data
1
System interface

read function

write function
2
3 4 Hardware interface

Command Status Data

Device Controller

I/O Performed By Polling

write(dev… , … )

Data 8
System interface

read function

write function

5 Hardware interface

Command Status Data

6 Device Controller
7
 Using Interrupts To Start An I/O Operation
read(, dev.., …)

1
System interface

Device status table

4 Device
read
Handler
driver

write
driver
Interrupt Handler
3
2
Hardware interface

Command Status Data

Device Controller

Completing Interrupt-Driven I/O

read(, dev.., …) 9

System interface
8a
Device status table
Device
read
Handler
driver
7 6
write
driver 8b
Interrupt Handler
5
Hardware interface

Command Status Data

Device Controller
Maskable vs. NonMaskable Interrupts
Vector Number Description
0 divide error
1 debug exception
2 null interrupt
3 breakpoint
4 INTO-detected overflow
5 bound range exception
6 invalid opcode
7 device not available
8 Double fault
15, 19-31 Intel reserved
32-255 Maskable interrupts

Direct Memory Access

Processor

cache
DMA/bus/interrupt x
Controller CPU memory bus memory buffer

PCI Bus

IDE Disk
Controller

disks
 Application I/O Interface

Kernel

Kernel I/O Subsystem

SCSI keyboard mouse PCI Bus Floppy Disk ATAPI
Device Device Device …… Device Device Device
Driver Driver Driver Driver Driver Driver
SCSI keyboard mouse PCI Bus Floppy Disk ATAPI
Device Device Device …… Device Device Device
Controller Controller Controller Controller Controller Controller

SCSI
Floppy Disk ATAPI
Devices keyboard mouse …… PCI Bus
Drive Devices

I/O Device Characteristics

Aspect Variation Example

Data-Transfer Mode Character Terminal

Block Disk
Access Method Sequential Modem
Random CD-ROM
Transfer Schedule Synchronous Tape
Asynchronous Keyboard
Sharing Dedicated Tape
Sharable Keyboard
I/O Direction Read only CD-ROM
Write Only Graphics controller
Read-Write Disk
 Block and Character Devices
• The essential operations of block devices
are read, write and seek.
• Raw I/O – accessing a block devices as an
array of blocks
• Character-stream devices such as keyboard
use the basic operations get and put.

Network Devices
• Sockets are a network interface used by
many operating systems.
• Sockets operations includes:
– creating a socket
– connecting local socket to a remote address
– listening for remote application to connect into
local sockets
– sending and receiving packets
 Clocks and Timers
• Computer clocks and timers have 3 basic
operations:
– Giving the current time
– Giving the elapsed time
– Triggering operation X at time T

Blocking and Nonblocking I/O

• When an application calls for input or

output, the operating system blocks the
process until the I/O operation is completed.
Such a system call is called a blocking
system call.
• Some application cannot work properly if
system calls block the process, e.g., video
applications. These use nonblocking
system calls.
 Implementing Nonblocking I/O

• Nonblocking I/O requires that execution

and I/O occur concurrently. This can be
implemented by writing multithreaded
programs.
• An alternative involves nonblocking system
calls which do not wait for I/O to be
completed.

Kernel I/O Subsystem

The I/O subsystem provides these services:
• I/O Scheduling
• Buffering
• Caching
• Spooling
• Device Reservation
• Error handling
 I/O Scheduling
• The order in which input/output requests are
made is rarely the best order in which to
perform them.
• I/O request scheduling algorithms seek to
maximize performance while guaranteeing
that all input/output are fulfilled within a
reasonable time frame.

Buffering
Device Transfer Rates

gigaplan bus

SBUS

SCSI bus

fast ethernet

hard disk

ethernet

laser printer

modem

mouse

keyboard

Logarithmic Scale
 Caching
• A cache is a copy of input/output data in
memory that can be accessed more quickly
than what is stored externally.
• Although buffering and caching are distinct
functions, there are cases where the same
area of memory is used for both purposes,
e.g., when reading disk data.

Spooling and Device Reservation

• A spool is a buffer for output intended for a
device that cannot accept interleaved data
streams.
• Printers are an example of such devices.
 Error Handling

• Operating systems should be able to handle

transient hardware errors. This is usually
done by trying the failed operation again.
• I/O system calls return a bit of information
that indicates whether the operation was a
success.
• In some cases either the operating system or
the hardware itself may provide more
specific information about a failure.

Kernel Data Structures

system wide open-file table
active inode
table

file-system record
process open pointers to:
file table inode
file descriptor read & write functions
ioctl & close function
……
network-
user-process memory socket record info table
pointers to:
network info
read & write functions
select function
ioctl & close function

……
kernel memory
Transforming I/O Requests to Hardware Operations
request I/O user process I/O completed
input data available (if input)
system call yes system call return
kernel I/O
can already transfer data (if appropriate)
satisfy request? subsystem to process,
return completion or error code
no

send request to device driver, kernel I/O

block process if appropriate
subsystem
process request, issue commands process request, issue commands
to controller ,configure controller device driver to controller, configure controller
to block until interrupted to block until interrupted

interrupt receive interrupt

device controller commands store data in driver buffer if input
handler signal to unblock device driver
interrupt
keyboard
monitor device, interrupt I/O is completed,
when I/O is completed device controller generate interrupt
time

Performance
• I/O is a major factor in system performance.
• Interrupt handling is computationally
expensive; anything that limits it can
increase system performance.
• Network traffic can seriously affect system
performance
• Some systems use front-end processor to
terminal I/O.