Module 5

I/O Organizations and

Peripherals

INPUT/ OUTPUT SYSTEMS

In computing, input/output or I/O is the communication between an information
processing system (such as a computer) and the outside world, possibly a
human or another information processing system.
Inputs are the signals or data received by the system and outputs are the
signals or data sent from it.
I/O devices are used by a human (or other system) to communicate with a
computer.
For instance, a keyboard or mouse is an input device for a computer, while
monitors and printers are output devices.
Devices for communication between computers, such as modems and network
cards, typically perform both input and output operations.

The designation of a device as either input or output depends on perspective.

Mouse and keyboards take physical movements that the human user outputs
and convert them into input signals that a computer can understand; the output
from these devices is the computer's input.
Similarly, printers and monitors take signals that a computer outputs as input,
and they convert these signals into a representation that human users can
understand.

INPUT-OUTPUT MODULES
The computer will be of no use if it is not communicating with the external world.
A computer must have a system to receive information from outside world and must
be able to communicate results to external world.
Thus, a computer consists of an I/O (input-output) system.
This system includes two basic components:
(i) the I/O devices and
(ii) I/O module, which not only connects an I/O device with the system bus, but plays a
very crucial role in between.
A device which is connected to an I/O module of computer is called a peripheral
device.

The input/output module (I/O module) is normally connected to the computer

system on one end and one or more input/output devices on the other.
An I/O module is needed because :
(a) Diversity of I/O devices makes it difficult to include all the peripheral device
logic(i.e. its control commands, data format etc.) into CPU.
(b) The I/O devices are usually slower than the memory and CPU. Therefore, it is
not advisable to use them on high speed system bus directly for communication
purpose.
(c) The data format and word length used by the peripheral may be quite different
than that of a CPU.

Thus,
(i) An I/O module is a mediator between the processor and an I/O
device/devices.
(ii) It controls the data exchange between the external devices and main memory
or CPU registers.
(iii)An I/O module provide an interface internal to the computer which connects it
to CPU and main memory and an interface external to the computer connecting it
to external device or peripheral.
(iv)The I/O module should not only communicate the information from CPU to I/O
device, but it should also coordinate these two.
(v)In addition since there are speed differences between CPU and I/O devices,
the I/O module should have facilities like buffer (storage area) and error detection
mechanism.

Functions of I/O Module:

The major functions of an I/O module are:
1. Processor communication -- this involves the following tasks:
a. exchange of data between processor and I/O module
b. command decoding - I/O module accepts commands sent from the
processor. E.g., the I/O module for a disk drive may accept the following
commands from the processor: READ SECTOR, WRITE SECTOR, SEEK
TRACK, etc.
c. status reporting The device must be able to report its status to the
processor, e.g., disk drive busy, ready etc. Status reporting may also involve
reporting various errors.
d. Address recognition Each I/O device has a unique address and the I/O
module must recognize this address.

2.Device communication The I/O module must be able to perform device

communication such as status reporting.
3.Control & timing The I/O module must be able to co-ordinate the flow of data
between the internal resources (such as processor, memory) and external devices.
4.Data buffering This is necessary as there is a speed mismatch between speed
of data transfer between processor and memory and external devices. Data coming
from the main memory are sent to an I/O module in a rapid burst. The data is
buffered in the I/O module and then sent to the peripheral device at its rate.
5. Error detection The I/O module must also be able to detect errors and report
them to the processor. These errors may be mechanical errors (such as paper jam in
a printer)

I/O Module Diagram

Types of Data Transfer

Techniques

 Three techniques are possible for I/O operations.

With programmed I/O, data are exchanged between the
processor and the I/O module.
The processor executes a program that gives it direct
control of the I/O operation, including sensing device status,
sending a read or write command, and transferring the
data.
When the processor issues a command to the I/O module, it
must wait until the I/O operation is complete.
If the processor is faster than the I/O module, this is
wasteful of processor time.
With interrupt-driven I/O, the processor issues an I/O
command, continues to execute other instructions, and is
interrupted by the I/O module when the latter has
completed its work.
With both programmed and interrupt I/O, the processor is
responsible for extracting data from main memory for
output and storing data in main memory for input.

 The alternative is known as direct memory access (DMA).

In this mode, the I/O module and main memory exchange
data directly, without processor involvement.
Table 7.1 indicates the relationship among these three
techniques.

PROGRAMMED I/O
Overview of Programmed I/O
When the processor is executing a program and encounters
an instruction relating to I/O, it executes that instruction by
issuing a command to the appropriate I/O module.
With programmed I/O, the I/O module will perform the
requested action and then set the appropriate bits in the I/O
status register (Figure 7.3).
The I/O module takes no further action to alert the
processor.
In particular, it does not interrupt the processor.
Thus, it is the responsibility of the processor periodically to
check the status of the I/O module until it finds that the
operation is complete.
To explain the programmed I/O technique, we view it first
from the point of view of the I/O commands issued by the
processor to the I/O module, and then from the point of
view of the I/O instructions executed by the processor.

I/O Commands
To execute an I/O-related instruction, the processor issues an
address, specifying the particular I/O module and external
device, and an I/O command.
There are four types of I/O commands that an I/O module may
receive when it is addressed by a processor:
Control: Used to activate a peripheral and tell it what to do. For
example, a magnetic-tape unit may be instructed to rewind or
to move forward one record. These commands are tailored to
the particular type of peripheral device.
Test: Used to test various status conditions associated with an
I/O module and its peripherals. The processor will want to know
that the peripheral of interest is powered on and available for
use. It will also want to know if the most recent I/O operation is
completed and if any errors occurred.
Read: Causes the I/O module to obtain an item of data from the
peripheral and place it in an internal buffer. The processor can
then obtain the data item by requesting that the I/O module
place it on the data bus.
Write: Causes the I/O module to take an item of data (byte or
word) from the data bus and subsequently transmit that data
item to the peripheral.

 Figure 7.4a gives an example of the use of programmed I/O

to read in a block of data from a peripheral device (e.g., a
record from tape) into memory.
Data are read in one word (e.g., 16 bits) at a time.
For each word that is read in, the processor must remain in
a status-checking cycle until it determines that the word is
available in the I/O modules data register.
This flowchart highlights the main disadvantage of this
technique: it is a time-consuming process that keeps the
processor busy needlessly.

 I/O Instructions
With programmed I/O, there is a close correspondence
between the I/O-related instructions that the processor
fetches from memory and the I/O commands that the
processor issues to an I/O module to execute the
instructions.
That is, the instructions are easily mapped into I/O
commands, and there is often a simple one-to-one
relationship.
The form of the instruction depends on the way in which
external devices are addressed.
Typically, there will be many I/O devices connected through
I/O modules to the system.
Each device is given a unique identifier or address.
When the processor issues an I/O command, the command
contains the address of the desired device.
Thus, each I/O module must interpret the address lines to
determine if the command is for itself

INTERRUPT-DRIVEN I/O

The problem with programmed I/O is that the processor has to

wait a long time for the I/O module of concern to be ready for
either reception or transmission of data.
The processor, while waiting, must repeatedly interrogate the
status of the I/O module.
As a result, the level of the performance of the entire system is
severely degraded.
An alternative is for the processor to issue an I/O command to
a module and then go on to do some other useful work.
The I/O module will then interrupt the processor to request
service when it is ready to exchange data with the processor.
The processor then executes the data transfer, as before, and
then resumes its former processing.
Let us consider how this works, first from the point of view of
the I/O module.
For input, the I/O module receives a READ command from the
processor.
The I/O module then proceeds to read data in from an
associated peripheral.
Once the data are in the modules data register, the module
signals an interrupt to the processor over a control line.
The module then waits until its data are requested by the
processor.

 From the processors point of view, the action for input is as

follows.
The processor issues a READ command. It then goes off and
does something else (e.g., the processor may be working
on several different programs at the same time).
At the end of each instruction cycle, the processor checks
for interrupts.
When the interrupt from the I/O module occurs, the
processor saves the context (e.g., program counter and
processor registers) of the current program and processes
the interrupt.
In this case, the processor reads the word of data from the
I/O module and stores it in memory. It then restores the
context of the program it was working on (or some other
program) and resumes execution.
Figure 7.4b shows the use of interrupt I/O for reading in a
block of data.
Compare this with Figure 7.4a.
Interrupt I/O is more efficient than programmed I/O because
it eliminates needless waiting.
However, interrupt I/O still consumes a lot of processor
time, because every word of data that goes from memory

DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS

Drawbacks of Programmed and Interrupt-Driven I/O

Interrupt-driven I/O, though more efficient than simple
programmed I/O, still requires the active intervention of the
processor to transfer data between memory and an I/O
module, and any data transfer must traverse a path through
the processor.
Thus, both these forms of I/O suffer from two inherent
drawbacks:
1. The I/O transfer rate is limited by the speed with which the
processor can test and service a device.
2. The processor is tied up in managing an I/O transfer; a
number of instructions must be executed for each I/O transfer.
There is somewhat of a trade-off between these two
drawbacks. Consider the transfer of a block of data.
Using simple programmed I/O, the processor is dedicated to
the task of I/O and can move data at a rather high rate, at the
cost of doing nothing else.
Interrupt I/O frees up the processor to some extent at the
expense of the I/O transfer rate.
Nevertheless, both methods have an adverse impact on both
processor activity and I/O transfer rate.

DMA Function
DMA involves an additional module on the system bus.
The DMA module (Figure 7.11) is capable of mimicking the
processor and, indeed, of taking over control of the system
from the processor.
It needs to do this to transfer data to and from memory over
the system bus.
For this purpose, the DMA module must use the bus only when
the processor does not need it, or it must force the processor
to suspend operation temporarily.
The latter technique is more common and is referred to as
cycle stealing, because the DMA module in effect steals a bus
cycle.
When the processor wishes to read or write a block of data, it
issues a command to the DMA module, by sending to the DMA
module the following information:
Whether a read or write is requested, using the read or write
control line between the processor and the DMA module
The address of the I/O device involved, communicated on the
data lines
The starting location in memory to read from or write to,
communicated on the data lines and stored by the DMA

 The processor then continues with other work. It has

delegated this I/O operation to the DMA module.
The DMA module transfers the entire block of data, one
word at a time, directly to or from memory, without going
through the processor.
When the transfer is complete, the DMA module sends an
interrupt signal to the processor.
Thus, the processor is involved only at the beginning and
end of the transfer (Figure 7.4c).

 Figure 7.12 shows where in the instruction cycle the

processor may be suspended.
In each case, the processor is suspended just before it
needs to use the bus.
The DMA module then transfers one word and returns
control to the processor.
Note that this is not an interrupt; the processor does not
save a context and do something else.
Rather, the processor pauses for one bus cycle.
The overall effect is to cause the processor to execute more
slowly.
Nevertheless, for a multiple-word I/O transfer, DMA is far
more efficient than interrupt-driven or programmed I/O.

The DMA mechanism can be configured in a variety of ways.

Some possibilities are shown in Figure 7.13.
In the first example, all modules share the same system bus.
The DMA module, acting as a surrogate processor, uses programmed
I/O to exchange data between memory and an I/O module through the
DMA module.
This configuration, while it may be inexpensive, is clearly inefficient.
As with processor-controlled programmed I/O, each transfer of a word
consumes two bus cycles.
The number of required bus cycles can be cut substantially by
integrating the DMA and I/O functions.
As Figure 7.13b indicates, this means that there is a path between the
DMA module and one or more I/O modules that does not include the
system bus.
The DMA logic may actually be a part of an I/O module, or it may be a
separate module that controls one or more I/O modules.
This concept can be taken one step further by connecting I/O modules
to the DMA module using an I/O bus (Figure 7.13c).
This reduces the number of I/O interfaces in the DMA module to one
and provides for an easily expandable configuration.
In both of these cases (Figures 7.13b and c), the system bus that the
DMA module shares with the processor and memory is used by the
DMA module only to exchange data with memory.
The exchange of data between the DMA and I/O modules takes place

Peripheral Devices: Introduction to peripheral devices, scanner, plotter,

joysticks, touch pad
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