Input and Output (IO)

In addition to processing the job (using CPU and

memory), IO is the main job of a computer system
Input and output are typically carried out by
peripheral devices, managed by the IO subsystem of
the kernel
Every device has a corresponding device driver that
manages the interface (IF) between device and kernel
All device drivers are typically implemented with a
single interface that the kernel understands
(syscalls?)
Operations: open, close, initialize, read, write
Typically the device manufacturer provides the IF

Chap 0

Hardware
monitor

CPU
cache

cache

graphics
controller

system bus
IDE Disk
Controller

disk 1

...

disk n

Chap 0

Communicating with a Device

The device driver (DD) has to communicate with the

device to give it commands and receive feedback
So-called IO-instructions read/write data to an IO-port

Another way of doing it is using memory-mapped IO

usually a register communicates directly with the device (i.e.,

whenever a write is done on an IO port, the device
subsequently receives the data)
same idea, but the communication is done through specific
(predefined) memory locations

Some systems use both (for example, a monitor has IO-ports

for control and memory-mapped IO for large data transfers)

Chap 0

Communication (cont)

Two ways of CPU-device communication:

Polling: the device is asked (polled) whether it has data

1- host checks the status register for that device
2- host tells the device to go ahead
3- device writes data/command to the IO-port

allows CPU to control how/when it interacts with device,

but large overhead if it has to poll repeatedly

Interrupts: the device takes the initiative

1- the device interrupts CPU to pass on data/commands
2- CPU does a context switch to process the interrupt
3- CPU returns from interrupt and resumes process

CPU doesnt waste time polling, but has no control of

when device will interrupt

Chap 0

Real-Time Systems Device

Communication

In real-time systems (RTSs), due to deadlines,

devices are usually not allowed to interrupt when
they want

a mal-functioning device could bring down the system

In RTSs, many tasks are periodic (reading

sensors, sending commands to actuators)
If polling is used, need to guarantee that IO will be
done in a timely fashion
If interrupts are used, need to guarantee that they
will not violate the deadline guarantees given to
processes
Chap 0

Handling Interrupts

Interrupt controller hardware provides ability to :

defer interrupts
call the proper interrupt service routine (ISR)
distinguish and prioritize between high- and low-priority
interrupts

In addition, processors can (and do!) mask

interrupts

disallow some interrupts to occur to process other stuff

however, there is the non-maskable interrupt
(emergency)

Chap 0

More on Interrupts

Interrupt vectors are very common: keep the

address of the ISR in a fixed location, the
hardware will read the number of the interrupt and
jump to the appropriate location
The interrupt handler will not have its own stack.
However, it will execute on top of the kernel stack,
not in the user stack

This is because there is little control over the size of the

user stack and the ISR may run out of memory

Interacting with Devices

Sometimes a mixture of interrupts and IO using

direct memory access (DMA) is beneficial.
A disk that has to read large data block to position X:

receives the request, reads the data

asks the DMA controller to put it in the memory location X
and then, finally, interrupts the CPU

The DMA controller and the disk exchange

information (a protocol) to be able to do this transfer
In some architectures this is called cycle stealing,
since the bus is used to transfer data into the
memory and thus the CPU cannot use the memory in
those cycles

Chap 0

Kernel IO Subsystem

The users want to use the devices.

How to achieve it?
The user uses a library that invokes
system calls in the OS.
The system calls get translated into
device driver requests
The DDs request service from the IO
controllers, who talk to the device
When the service is done, the
controller sends an interrupt, to
signal CPU

user

OS

DD
ISR
controller
device

Chap 0

Disk as a case study

A disk drive has several physical components

spindle
surface (one side in the pack)

read/write arm and head

cylinder (or track)

sector

Chap 0

Accessing the Disk

A disk is accessed through the library, file system,

DevDriver and disk controller
The calls to the controller are called disk drive
commands, such as drive select, head select,
direction, read/write, data out, etc
The disk controller does the synchronization
between disk and OS, signaling/timing, some error
control
Several users may request data to/from the disk at
once
The file system is the first entity to recognize it
and synchronize access to the disk
Chap 0

Accessing the Disk (cont)

The FS does the scheduling of the requests, that is, it

determines the order in which the requests are
serviced
The FS and DD also use buffering for synchronization
(support speed/data size mismatch between OSdevice)
The user, FS, and DD have different ideas (abstraction)
of how the file looks like.

user: contiguous space, byte by byte

file system: blocks of data, with logical addresses
DD: sectors in disk, in specific hardware addresses (typically
consists of < cyl, track, sect >

Chap 0

Accessing the Disk (cont)

The translations take place each time a new

interface is crossed
The file-relative logical address <filename,offset>
The volume-relative logical address <sector,offset>
The drive-relative physical address <cyl,track,sect>
Some disks have also a zone, and the physical
address becomes < cyl, zone, track, sect >

This is because the length of outer tracks /cylinders

compared with inner tracks/cylinders (density)

Chap 0

Accessing the Disk (cont)

When we need to access a sector, the disk head

needs to be positioned over that sector (or more
accurately, the disk must rotate until the sector is
under the head)
For that, several delays are involved in the disk
operation, in decreasing time

seek delay: position HEAD on correct track/cylinder

rotational delay: position correct SECTOR under head
transfer delay: transfer data to/from memory

Therefore, it is important to minimize the highest

delay, namely, the seek delay
Chap 0

Improve Disk Speed

Increase buffering in the device driver

and/or disk controller (this is a type of
cache)
Reduce rotational delay:
place blocks of the same file in the same
cylinder
read the blocks in the appropriate order
allow block interleaving
1
(clearly, the number of sectors
4
in the disk should be odd,
2
unlike the drawing)
3

Chap 0

Interleaving

Interleaving is done in the device driver, since it

will have to tell the controller where to place
sectors in the disk. Clearly, interleaving is tightly
coupled with the device itself
The device decides the interleaving degree (how
many sectors to skip over), which is tightly
coupled with the speeds of the disk

Rotational
Seek (or arm speed)
Transfer

Chap 0

Improve Disk Speed (cont)

To decrease seek delays one can:

increase the number of heads

park the head in the middle track of the disk to
decrease the average seek delay
place the data in the appropriate locations (tracks)

The organ pipe distribution does the last trick spindle

create a histogram of the disk block usage (count

the number of times that disk blocks are used)
place most used blocks in the middle track

Chap 0

Improve Disk Speed (cont)

RAID: Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

Allows for more parallelism when retrieving data

store each part of a block in a separate disk, and allow

all sub-blocks to be retrieved in parallel
If disks are homogeneous and synchronized, even
better performance can be achieved
If disks are heterogeneous or not synchronized,
performance is worse since it depends on the slowest of
the disks, or the one off phase.

can use slower, cheaper disks

Chap 0

Possible File Structures

None - sequence of words or bytes

Simple record structure

Complex Structures

Formatted document
Relocatable load file

Can simulate last two with first method by inserting

appropriate control characters.
Who decides:

19

Lines
Fixed length
Variable length

Operating system
Program

File Attributes

20

Name only data kept in human-readable form.

Type needed for supporting different file types.
Location pointer to file location on device.
Size current file size.
Protection controls who can do reading, writing,
executing, access, etc.
Time, date, and user identification data for
protection, security, and usage monitoring.
Information about files are kept in the directory
structure, which is maintained on the disk.

File Operations

21

create
write
read
file seek: reposition within file
delete
truncate
open(Fi) search the directory structure on disk
for entry Fi, and move the content of entry to
memory.
close (Fi) move the content of entry Fi in memory
to directory structure on disk.

Directory Structure

A collection of nodes containing information about all files.

Directory

Files

22

F1

F2

F3

F4
Fn

Both the directory structure and the files

reside on disk.
Backups of these two structures are kept on
tapes.

Information in a Device Directory

23

Name
Type
Address
Current length
Maximum length
Date last accessed (for archival)
Date last updated
Owner ID
Protection information

Operations Performed on a Directory

24

Search for a file

Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system

Logical Directory Organization

Goals:
Efficiency locating a file quickly.
Naming convenient to users.

Two users can have same name for different

files.
The same file can have several different names.

25

Grouping logical grouping of files by

properties, (e.g., all Pascal programs, all
games, )

Single-Level Directory

26

A single directory for all users.

Naming problem
Grouping problem

Two-Level Directory

27

Separate (flat) directory for each user.

Path name
Can have the same file name for different
user
Efficient searching
No grouping capability

Tree-Structured Directories

Efficient searching
Grouping Capability
Current directory (working directory)

28

cd /spell/mail/prog
type list

Tree-Structured Directories (Cont.)

Absolute or relative path name

Concept of current working directory
Creating/deleting a new file/subdirectory is done
in current directory.
mail

prog

29

copy prt exp count

Example: Deleting mail deleting the entire

subtree rooted by mail.

Acyclic-Graph Directories

Have shared subdirectories and files.

Two different names (aliasing)
If dict deletes count dangling pointer.
Solutions:

30

Backpointers, so we can delete all pointers.

Entry-hold-count solution.

Protection

File owner/creator should be able to control:

Types of access

31

what can be done

by whom
Read
Write
Execute
Append
Delete
List

Classical Unix: Access Lists & Groups

Mode of access: read, write, execute

Three classes of users
R W X
a) owner access
b) groups access

7
6

1 1 1
1 1 0

c) public access

0 0 1

owner

32

group

public

SysAdmin creates a group (unique name), say G, and add

users to the group.
chmod
761
game
Attach a group to a file
chgrp G game

AFS (Andrew) Access Control Lists

More details, more information

For each file, maintain a list of users and
their access capabilities
More costly, due to more checking
More flexibility, more degrees of sharing
(read, list dir, admin, write, insert, delete)
ACLs are easy to use, and render Unix
protection bits useless

33

dangers of different user interfaces (the unix

bits are still listed in ls)