REAL TIME OPERATING SYSTEMS

Lesson-8:
I/O Subsystems

2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 1

and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 1. I/O Subsystem

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and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 I/O ports

 Subsystems of OS device management

system─ UART access sub system and the
parallel port access sub system .
 They are used by drivers to communicate
with the many devices that use them
 I/O instructions depend on the hardware
platform.
 I/O systems differ in different OSes.

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and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
I/O Subsystem in a Typical I/O System
at in an OS
 Application
 IO Basic functions
 IO device driver functions
 Device Hardware or Port or IO Interface
card

2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 4

and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 2. I/O Operations

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and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 OSes differing IO operations
 Traditional OSes Synchronous IO
operations─ at a certain fixed data transfer
rates.
 RTOSes Asynchronous IO operations ─ at
the variable data transfer rates.

2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 6

and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 Synchronous IO operations
 Are at a certain fixed data transfer rates.
 Therefore, a task (process) blocks tills till
completion of the IO.
 For example, a write function, write ( ) for 1
kB data transfer to a buffer.

2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 7

and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 Synchronous IO

 Synchronous IO operation means once

synchronous IO initiates, the data transfer
will block the task till 1 kB data gets
transferred to the buffer.
 Similarly, read ( ) once initiated blocks the
task till 1 kB is read

2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 8

and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 Asynchronous IO operations
 Variable data transfer rates.
 Permits that a process of high priority to run
and should not block during the IOs.

2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 9

and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 2. POSIX asynchronous functions for
IOs

2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 10

and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 POSIX asynchronous functions for
IOs
• aio_read ( )
• aio_write ( )
• aio_list ( )
• aio_error ( )
• aio_cancel,
• aio_suspend ( )─ Suspension is till the next
port-device interruption or till a timed out.
• aio_return ( ) returns the status of completed
operations.
2008 Chapter-8 L8: "Embedded Systems - Architecture, Programming 11
and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 Summary

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and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
We learnt
• I/O subsystems are part of OS services.
• Examples are UART access and parallel
port access.
• Synchronous and asynchronous IOs.
• A task gets blocked during the synchronous
IOs, for example, fread ( ) or write ( ).
• RTOSes support asynchronous IOs, for
example, aio_read ( ) and aio_write also in
order to not to block a task during the IOs

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and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 End of Lesson 8 of Chapter 8

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and Design" , Raj Kamal, Publs.: McGraw-Hill, Inc.