Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L L Wear.
This concludes our overview of system software. We have not included all parts of that software and have only briefly described the parts we did include. However, we hope that you now have an appreciation of the many, many things going on "underneath the surface" when you click a mouse button or type a command on your computer.
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I/O units span a broad range of sophistication. An elementary von Neumann implementation requires that the CPU directly controls the I/O unit. The CPU must repeatedly test the status of the device to see if the requested operation has been finished. A major advance in the design of the I/O unit was made possible by the addition of interrupts to the computer. This feature facilitated multiprogramming, with its associated increases in efficiency and productivity. In many applications today, large amounts of data must be transferred and many interrupts must be processed. The performance of the I/O unit in systems running these applications is critical. In transaction processing, for instance, the speed and efficiency of the I/O unit is more critical than the speed of the ALU.
In this article, we looked at several peripherals, described their characteristics, and described how they are connected to computers. We included some discussions of problems caused by electrical and mechanical differences between computers and peripheral devices. During the past few years, many companies have addressed such problems. Numerous standards have been defined as a result of this work. These standards specify everything from what type of connectors will be used to the timing of electrical signals. They make it easier for peripheral manufacturers to design their devices for a wide range of computers. Peripherals and their controllers are important components of any computer system. Sometimes, however, other parts of the system, such as the control unit and main memory, receive more attention. Many engineers want to design new processors, but shy away from the design of peripherals and controllers; they consider such designs less glamorous. In reality, designs for some peripherals and their controllers can be more challenging than the design of the CPU itself. A computer without peripherals is of little use, other than as a paper weight. Until we attach peripherals to the computer, none of its power is accessible to the user. Peripherals turn computers into useful tools.
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Being well informed on the latest computer terminology is a continuous challenge these days. In this article Pinkert and Wear give us a vocabulary lesson for computer consumers.