Devices and Device Drivers Flashcards
A register is ?
a storage location associated with the I/O device that data can be read from and written to
The I/O controller ?
reads commands written to the control register and performs the requested action
The control register is ?
where the device driver writes commands such as read or write for the I/O controller to act upon
The data register is?
where the device driver writes data that the device outputs and reads data that the device inputs
A status register?
might indicate to the device driver whether the device is ready to accept a command, that the device is busy, or that an interrupt has occurred
the data registers might be supplemented by a first-in first-out (FIFO) chip, in which?
multiple bytes or words of input or output data are stored in the order they were received
Port-mapped I/O uses?
dedicated memory addresses, referred to as ports, and special CPU instructions to communicate with I/O devices
memory-mapped I/O?
the control and data registers are mapped into
the computer’s main memory space and the CPU uses the same instructions for reading and writing I/O registers as it does for reading and writing RAM
programmed I/O (PIO) devices
require the CPU to read and write each byte or word of data from and to the device registers
direct memory access (DMA)
transfer large blocks of memory to and from I/O devices with little involvement by the CPU
A DMA controller transfers data between?
the I/O device and a block of memory, allowing the CPU to attend to other tasks
Most I/O devices can be categorized based on?
−bHow data is accessed (randomly or sequentially)
− How much data is accessed – one byte per transfer or a block of data per transfer
A random-access device allows?
data accesses to occur directly at any location of the device’s storage, without having to start at the beginning each time a data access occurs
Sequential-access devices include ?
serial ports, network interfaces, and tape drives
a character-stream device
A device that transfers data one byte at a time
- Keyboards, mice, serial ports, and sound cards are examples
A block device works with?
a collection of bytes, usually a fixed size
- Storage devices are the most common block devices
A network interface is a?
special case (It most closely resembles a block device)
A device driver is?
software that enables the OS and application software to access specific computer hardware
The OS provides basic I/O support for devices, but?
- it doesn’t support specific features of each device
- For specific features to be supported and work properly, a device driver is needed for the device
An interrupt request (IRQ) line is ?
a channel within the computer that is used for communications with the CPU
An I/O address range is ?
memory reserved for use by a particular device
driver signing
When it has been verified, a unique digital signature is incorporated into that driver
Kernel modules
pieces of code that must be linked into the kernel
Loadable modules
pieces of code that are not linked into the kernel, but are loaded when the OS is started
Block special files are
used to manage random access devices that involve handling blocks of data (hard drives, DVD/CD-ROM drives)
Character special files ?
handle byte-by-byte streams of data (USB connections such as mice, keyboards, printers, etc….)
Named pipes used for?
for handling internal communications, such as redirecting file output to a monitor
