I/O Management
COMP755 Advanced Operating Systems 1
I/O Management
COMP755 Advanced Operating Systems
General Computer Architecture
Goals for I/O
• Users should access all devices in a uniform
manner.
• Devices should be named in a uniform
manner.
• The OS, without the intervention of the user
program, should handle recoverable errors.
• The OS must maintain security of the
devices.
• The OS should optimize the performance of
the I/O system.
Levels of I/O
• User program
• User level I/O functions
• Device-independent OS software
• Device drivers
• Interrupt handlers
Naming
• In Unix systems, all device names are part
of the file address space.
• Hardware devices are “files” in the /dev
directory.
• Some Microsoft Windows devices have
names such as lpt1 or com2.
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