Operating System Input/Output (I/O)

The three main jobs of a computer are Input, Output, and Processing. In most of the cases, the most important job is Input / Output, and the processing is simply incidental. For an example, when we browse a web page or edit any file, our immediate attention is to read or enter some information, not for computing an answer. The fundamental role of the operating system in computer Input / Output is to manage and organize I/O operations and all I/O devices.

The various devices that are connected to the computer need to be controlled and it is a key concern of operating-system designers. This is as I/O devices vary so widely in their functionality and speed (for example a mouse, a hard disk and a CD-ROM), varied methods are required for controlling them. These methods form the I/O sub-system of the kernel of OS that separates the rest of the kernel from the complications of managing I/O devices.

I/O Hardware

Computers operate many huge kinds of devices. General categories of storage devices are like disks, tapes, transmission devices (like network interface cards, modems) and human interface devices (like screen, keyboard, etc.).

A device which communicates with the operating system of a computer by transferring signals over cable or even through the air. The Peripheral devices that communicate with the machine through a connection point also called ports- (one example is a serial port). Whenever devices use a set of wires or cables, that connecting cables are called a "bus". Simply, a bus is a collection of wires and a firmly defined protocol that describes a set of messages that can be sent on the wires.

An I/O port usually contains four different registers −

(1) control, (2) status, (3) data-in, and (4) data-out registers.

• The data-in register is read by the host for getting input.

• The data-out register is written by the host for sending output.

• The status register holds bits which can be read by the host.

• The control register is written by the host for starting a command or for changing the mode of any device.

• The data registers are usually 1 to 4 bytes in size. Some of the controllers have FIFO chips which hold several bytes of input or output data for expanding the capacity of the controller beyond the size of the data register.