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UNIT-V
INPUT-OUTPUT ORGANIZATION
Peripheral Devices:
The Input / output organization of computer depends upon the size of computer and the peripherals connected to it. The I/O Subsystem of the computer, provides an efficient mode of communication between the central system and the outside environment
The most common input output devices are:
i) Monitor
ii) Keyboard
iii) Mouse
iv) Printer
v) Magnetic tapes
The devices that are under the direct control of the computer are said to be connected online.
Input - Output Interface
Input Output Interface provides a method for transferring information between internal storage and external I/O devices.
Peripherals connected to a computer need special communication links for interfacing them with the central processing unit.
The purpose of communication link is to resolve the differences that exist between the central computer and each peripheral.
The Major Differences are:-
- Peripherals are electromechnical and electromagnetic devices and CPU and memory are electronic devices. Therefore, a conversion of signal values may be needed.
- The data transfer rate of peripherals is usually slower than the transfer rate of CPU and consequently, a synchronization mechanism may be needed.
- Data codes and formats in the peripherals differ from the word format in the CPU and memory.
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- The operating modes of peripherals are different from each other and must be controlled so as not to disturb the operation of other peripherals connected to the CPU.
To Resolve these differences, computer systems include special hardware components between the CPU and Peripherals to supervises and synchronizes all input and out transfers
These components are called Interface Units because they interface between the processor bus and the peripheral devices.
I/O BUS and Interface Module
It defines the typical link between the processor and several peripherals.
The I/O Bus consists of data lines, address lines and control lines.
The I/O bus from the processor is attached to all peripherals interface.
To communicate with a particular device, the processor places a device address on address lines.
Each Interface decodes the address and control received from the I/O bus, interprets them for peripherals and provides signals for the peripheral controller.
It is also synchronizes the data flow and supervises the transfer between peripheral and processor.
Each peripheral has its own controller.
For example, the printer controller controls the paper motion, the print timing
The control lines are referred as I/O command. The commands are as following:
Control command- A control command is issued to activate the peripheral and to inform it what to do.
Status command- A status command is used to test various status conditions in the interface and the peripheral.
Data Output command- A data output command causes the interface to respond by transferring data from the bus into one of its registers.
Data Input command- The data input command is the opposite of the data output.
In this case the interface receives on item of data from the peripheral and places it in its buffer register. I/O Versus Memory Bus
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Strobe Signal :
The strobe control method of Asynchronous data transfer employs a single control line to time each transfer. The strobe may be activated by either the source or the destination unit.
Data Transfer Initiated by Source Unit:
In the block diagram fig. (a), the data bus carries the binary information from source to destination unit. Typically, the bus has multiple lines to transfer an entire byte or word. The strobe is a single line that informs the destination unit when a valid data word is available.
The timing diagram fig. (b) the source unit first places the data on the data bus. The information on the data bus and strobe signal remain in the active state to allow the destination unit to receive the data.
Data Transfer Initiated by Destination Unit:
In this method, the destination unit activates the strobe pulse, to informing the source to provide the data. The source will respond by placing the requested binary information on the data bus.
The data must be valid and remain in the bus long enough for the destination unit to accept it. When accepted the destination unit then disables the strobe and the source unit removes the data from the bus.
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Disadvantage of Strobe Signal :
The disadvantage of the strobe method is that, the source unit initiates the transfer has no way of knowing whether the destination unit has actually received the data item that was places in the bus. Similarly, a destination unit that initiates the transfer has no way of knowing whether the source unit has actually placed the data on bus. The Handshaking method solves this problem.
Handshaking:
The handshaking method solves the problem of strobe method by introducing a second control signal that provides a reply to the unit that initiates the transfer.
Principle of Handshaking:
The basic principle of the two-wire handshaking method of data transfer is as follow:
One control line is in the same direction as the data flows in the bus from the source to destination. It is used by source unit to inform the destination unit whether there a valid data in the bus. The other control line is in the other direction from the destination to the source. It is used by the destination unit to inform the source whether it can accept the data. The sequence of control during the transfer depends on the unit that initiates the transfer.
Source Initiated Transfer using Handshaking:
The sequence of events shows four possible states that the system can be at any given time. The source unit initiates the transfer by placing the data on the bus and enabling its data valid signal. The data accepted signal is activated by the destination unit after it accepts the data from the bus. The source unit then disables its data accepted signal and the system goes into its initial state.
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Advantage of the Handshaking method:
The Handshaking scheme provides degree of flexibility and reliability because the successful completion of data transfer relies on active participation by both units.
If any of one unit is faulty, the data transfer will not be completed. Such an error can be detected by means of a Timeout mechanism which provides an alarm if the data is not completed within time.
Asynchronous Serial Transmission:
The transfer of data between two units is serial or parallel. In parallel data transmission, n bit in the message must be transmitted through n separate conductor path. In serial transmission, each bit in the message is sent in sequence one at a time.
Parallel transmission is faster but it requires many wires. It is used for short distances and where speed is important. Serial transmission is slower but is less expensive.
In Asynchronous serial transfer, each bit of message is sent a sequence at a time, and binary information is transferred only when it is available. When there is no information to be transferred, line remains idle.
In this technique each character consists of three points :
i. Start bit
ii. Character bit
iii. Stop bit
i. Start Bit- First bit, called start bit is always zero and used to indicate the beginning character.
ii. Stop Bit- Last bit, called stop bit is always one and used to indicate end of characters. Stop bit is always in the 1- state and frame the end of the characters to signify the idle or wait state.
iii. Character Bit- Bits in between the start bit and the stop bit are known as character bits. The character bits always follow the start bit.
Serial Transmission of Asynchronous is done by two ways:
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a) Asynchronous Communication Interface
b) First In First out Buffer
Asynchronous Communication Interface:
It works as both a receiver and a transmitter. Its operation is initialized by CPU by sending a byte to the control register.
The transmitter register accepts a data byte from CPU through the data bus and transferred to a shift register for serial transmission.
The receive portion receives information into another shift register, and when a complete data byte is received it is transferred to receiver register.
CPU can select the receiver register to read the byte through the data bus. Data in the status register is used for input and output flags.
First In First Out Buffer (FIFO):
A First In First Out (FIFO) Buffer is a memory unit that stores information in such a manner that the first item is in the item first out. A FIFO buffer comes with separate input and output terminals. The important feature of this buffer is that it can input data and output data at two different rates.
When placed between two units, the FIFO can accept data from the source unit at one rate, rate of transfer and deliver the data to the destination unit at another rate.
If the source is faster than the destination, the FIFO is useful for source data arrive in bursts that fills out the buffer. FIFO is useful in some applications when data are transferred asynchronously.
Modes of Data Transfer :
Transfer of data is required between CPU and peripherals or memory or sometimes between any two devices or units of your computer system. To transfer a data from one unit to another one should be sure that both units have proper connection and at the time of data transfer the receiving unit is not busy. This data transfer with the computer is Internal Operation.
All the internal operations in a digital system are synchronized by means of clock pulses supplied by a common clock pulse Generator_._ The data transfer can be
i. Synchronous or
ii. Asynchronous
When both the transmitting and receiving units use same clock pulse then such a data transfer is called Synchronous process. On the other hand, if the there is not concept of clock pulses
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In this technique CPU is responsible for executing data from the memory for output and storing data in memory for executing of Programmed I/O as shown in Flowchart-:
Drawback of the Programmed I/O :
The main drawback of the Program Initiated I/O was that the CPU has to monitor the units all the times when the program is executing. Thus the CPU stays in a program loop until the I/O unit indicates that it is ready for data transfer. This is a time consuming process and the CPU time is wasted a lot in keeping an eye to the executing of program.
To remove this problem an Interrupt facility and special commands are used.
Interrupt-Initiated I/O :
In this method an interrupt facility an interrupt command is used to inform the device about the start and end of transfer. In the meantime the CPU executes other program. When the interface determines that the device is ready for data transfer it generates an Interrupt Request and sends it to the computer.
When the CPU receives such an signal, it temporarily stops the execution of the program and branches to a service program to process the I/O transfer and after completing it returns back to task, what it was originally performing.
In this type of IO, computer does not check the flag. It continue to perform its task.
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Whenever any device wants the attention, it sends the interrupt signal to the CPU.
CPU then deviates from what it was doing, store the return address from PC and branch to the address of the subroutine.
There are two ways of choosing the branch address:
Vectored Interrupt
Non-vectored Interrupt
In vectored interrupt the source that interrupt the CPU provides the branch information. This information is called interrupt vectored.
In non-vectored interrupt, the branch address is assigned to the fixed address in the memory.
Priority Interrupt:
There are number of IO devices attached to the computer.
They are all capable of generating the interrupt.
When the interrupt is generated from more than one device, priority interrupt system is used to determine which device is to be serviced first.
Devices with high speed transfer are given higher priority and slow devices are given lower priority.
Establishing the priority can be done in two ways:
Using Software
Using Hardware
A pooling procedure is used to identify highest priority in software means.
Polling Procedure :
There is one common branch address for all interrupts.
Branch address contain the code that polls the interrupt sources in sequence. The highest priority is tested first.
The particular service routine of the highest priority device is served.
The disadvantage is that time required to poll them can exceed the time to serve them in large number of IO devices.
Using Hardware:
Hardware priority system function as an overall manager.
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Mask register is used to provide facility for the higher priority devices to interrupt when lower priority device is being serviced or disable all lower priority devices when higher is being serviced.
Corresponding interrupt bit and mask bit are ANDed and applied to priority encoder.
Priority encoder generates two bits of vector address.
Another output from it sets IST(interrupt status flip flop).
The Execution process of Interrupt–Initiated I/O is represented in the flowchart:
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Direct Memory Access (DMA):
In the Direct Memory Access (DMA) the interface transfer the data into and out of the memory unit through the memory bus. The transfer of data between a fast storage device such as magnetic disk and memory is often limited by the speed of the CPU. Removing the CPU from the path and letting the peripheral device manage the memory buses directly would improve the speed of transfer. This transfer technique is called Direct Memory Access (DMA).
During the DMA transfer, the CPU is idle and has no control of the memory buses. A DMA Controller takes over the buses to manage the transfer directly between the I/O device and memory.
The CPU may be placed in an idle state in a variety of ways. One common method extensively used in microprocessor is to disable the buses through special control signals such as:
Bus Request (BR)
Bus Grant (BG)
These two control signals in the CPU that facilitates the DMA transfer. The Bus Request (BR) input is used by the DMA controller to request the CPU. When this input is active, the CPU terminates the execution of the current instruction and places the address bus, data bus
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i. Address Register :- Address Register contains an address to specify the desired location in memory.
ii. Word Count Register :- WC holds the number of words to be transferred. The register is incre/decre by one after each word transfer and internally tested for zero.
i. Control Register :- Control Register specifies the mode of transfer
The unit communicates with the CPU via the data bus and control lines. The registers in the DMA are selected by the CPU through the address bus by enabling the DS (DMA select) and RS (Register select) inputs. The RD (read) and WR (write) inputs are bidirectional. When the BG (Bus Grant) input is 0, the CPU can communicate with the DMA registers through the data bus to read from or write to the DMA registers. When BG =1, the DMA can communicate directly with the memory by specifying an address in the address bus and activating the RD or WR control.
DMA Transfer:
The CPU communicates with the DMA through the address and data buses as with any interface unit. The DMA has its own address, which activates the DS and RS lines. The CPU initializes the DMA through the data bus. Once the DMA receives the start control command, it can transfer between the peripheral and the memory.
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When BG = 0 the RD and WR are input lines allowing the CPU to communicate with the internal DMA registers. When BG=1, the RD and WR are output lines from the DMA controller to the random access memory to specify the read or write operation of data. Summary : Interface is the point where a connection is made between two different parts of a system. The strobe control method of Asynchronous data transfer employs a single control line to time each transfer. The handshaking method solves the problem of strobe method by introducing a second control signal that provides a reply to the unit that initiates the transfer. Programmed I/O mode of data transfer the operations are the results in I/O instructions which is a part of computer program. In the Interrupt Initiated I/O method an interrupt facility an interrupt command is used to inform the device about the start and end of transfer. In the Direct Memory Access (DMA) the interface transfer the data into and out of the memory unit through the memory bus.
Input-Output Processor:
It is a processor with direct memory access capability that communicates with IO devices.
IOP is similar to CPU except that it is designed to handle the details of IO operation.
Unlike DMA which is initialized by CPU, IOP can fetch and execute its own instructions.
IOP instruction are specially designed to handle IO operation.
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PIPELINE AND VECTOR PROCESSING
Parallel processing:
- Parallel processing is a term used for a large class of techniques that
are used to provide simultaneous data-processing tasks for the purpose of increasing the computational speed of a computer system.
It refers to techniques that are used to provide simultaneous data processing.
The system may have two or more ALUs to be able to execute two or more instruction at the same time.
The system may have two or more processors operating concurrently.
It can be achieved by having multiple functional units that perform same or different operation simultaneously.
- Example of parallel Processing:
- Multiple Functional Unit:
Separate the execution unit into eight functional units operating in parallel.
There are variety of ways in which the parallel processing can be classified
Internal Organization of Processor
Interconnection structure between processors
Flow of information through system
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Architectural Classification:
» Based on the multiplicity of Instruction Streams and Data Streams
» Instruction Stream
- Sequence of Instructions read from memory
» Data Stream
- Operations performed on the data in the processor
SISD represents the organization containing single control unit, a processor unit and a memory unit. Instruction are executed sequentially and system may or may not have internal parallel processing capabilities.
SIMD represents an organization that includes many processing units under the supervision of a common control unit.
MISD structure is of only theoretical interest since no practical system has been constructed using this organization.
MIMD organization refers to a computer system capable of processing several programs at the same time.
The main difference between multicomputer system and multiprocessor system is that the multiprocessor system is controlled by one operating system that provides interaction between processors and all the component of the system cooperate in the solution of a problem.
Parallel Processing can be discussed under following topics:
Pipeline Processing
Vector Processing
Array Processors
