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Questions and Answers
What is the primary function of a device controller?
What is the primary function of a device controller?
What is the purpose of a memory controller in a computer system?
What is the purpose of a memory controller in a computer system?
What is the relationship between a device controller and the devices it controls?
What is the relationship between a device controller and the devices it controls?
What is the role of a device driver in a computer system?
What is the role of a device driver in a computer system?
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What is the primary advantage of having multiple CPUs in a system?
What is the primary advantage of having multiple CPUs in a system?
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What is the common pathway through which the CPU and device controllers access shared memory?
What is the common pathway through which the CPU and device controllers access shared memory?
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What is the role of the device driver in starting an I/O operation?
What is the role of the device driver in starting an I/O operation?
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What happens after the device controller completes the transfer of data?
What happens after the device controller completes the transfer of data?
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How does the device controller inform the device driver that it has finished its operation?
How does the device controller inform the device driver that it has finished its operation?
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What is the purpose of the table of pointers to interrupt routines?
What is the purpose of the table of pointers to interrupt routines?
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What happens to the state information of the interrupted process?
What happens to the state information of the interrupted process?
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What happens after the interrupt is serviced?
What happens after the interrupt is serviced?
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Study Notes
Computer System Organization
- A modern general-purpose computer system consists of one or more CPUs, device controllers, and a common bus that provides access between components and shared memory.
- Each device controller is in charge of a specific type of device (e.g., disk drive, audio device, or graphics display) and can have multiple devices attached.
- Device controllers have local buffer storage and special-purpose registers, and are responsible for moving data between peripheral devices and their local buffer storage.
Interrupts
- Interrupts alert the CPU to events that require attention, such as completing an I/O operation.
- The device controller informs the device driver that it has finished its operation via an interrupt.
- The device driver then gives control to other parts of the operating system, possibly returning data or status information.
- Interrupts are handled quickly using a table of pointers to interrupt routines, which is stored in low memory.
- The interrupt vector is indexed by a unique number to provide the address of the interrupt service routine for the interrupting device.
- Operating systems like Windows and UNIX dispatch interrupts in this manner.
Interrupt Handling
- The interrupt architecture must save the state information of whatever was interrupted, so that it can restore this information after servicing the interrupt.
- If the interrupt routine needs to modify the processor state, it must explicitly save the current state and then restore that state before returning.
- After the interrupt is serviced, the saved return address is loaded into the program counter, and the interrupted computation resumes as though the interrupt had not occurred.
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Description
This quiz covers the organization of a modern general-purpose computer system, including the components and their interactions.
