Saturday 8 December 2012

Interrupt request

WHAT IS A IRQ?
An IRQ or Interrupt request line allows a hardware device inside of the computer a direct line to the Microprocessor and tells the Microprocessor to stop what it is doing and wait until it has further instructions. Every PC computer has a maximum of 16 IRQs and is prioritized in the computer according to the importance of the device.

Here is the IRQ Listing


IRQ Number
Typical Use
Description
IRQ 0 System timer This interrupt is reserved for the internal system timer. It is never available to peripherals or other devices.
IRQ 1 Keyboard This interrupt is reserved for the keyboard controller. Even on devices without a keyboard, this interrupt is exclusively for keyboard input.
IRQ 2 Cascade interrupt for IRQs 8-15 This interrupt cascades the second interrupt controller to the first.
IRQ 3 Second serial port (COM2) The interrupt for the second serial port and often the default interrupt for the fourth serial port (COM4).
IRQ 4 First serial port (COM1) This interrupt is normally used for the first serial port. On devices that do not use a PS/2 mouse, this interrupt is almost always used by the serial mouse. This is also the default interrupt for the third serial port (COM3).
IRQ 5 Sound card This interrupt is the first choice that most sound cards make when looking for an IRQ setting.
IRQ 6 Floppy disk controller This interrupt is reserved for the floppy disk controller.
IRQ 7 First parallel port This interrupt is normally reserved for the use of the printer. If a printer is not being used, this interrupt can be used for other devices that use parallel ports.
IRQ 8 Real-time clock This interrupt is reserved for the system's real-time clock timer and can not be used for any other purpose.
IRQ 9 Open interrupt This interrupt is typically left open on devices for the use of peripherals.
IRQ 10 Open interrupt This interrupt is typically left open on devices for the use of peripherals.
IRQ 11 Open interrupt This interrupt is typically left open on devices for the use of peripherals.
IRQ 12 PS/2 mouse This interrupt is reserved for the PS/2 mouse on machines that use one. If a PS/2 mouse is not used, the interrupt can be used for other peripherals, such as network card.
IRQ 13 Floating point unit/coprocessor This interrupt is reserved for the integrated floating point unit. It is never available to peripherals or other devices as it is used exclusively for internal signaling.
IRQ 14 Primary IDE channel This interrupt is reserved for use by the primary IDE controller. On systems that do not use IDE devices, the IRQ can be used for another purpose.
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE channel This interrupt is reserved for use by the secondary IDE controller.

HOW TO LEARN  IRQ'S WITH EASLY MODE

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Main points of Hard Disk

Access time:-
                                          

Access time is the time from the start of one storage device access to the time when the next access can be started. Access time consists of latency (the overhead of getting to the right place on the device and preparing to access it) and transfer time.

The term is applied to both random access memory (RAM) access and to hard disk and CD-ROM access. For RAM access, IBM prefers the term cycle time. However, the use of access time for RAM access is common. Access time to RAM is usually measured in nanoseconds. Access time to a hard disk or CD-ROM is usually measured in milliseconds.

 The time a program or device takes to locate a single piece of information and make it available to the computer for processing. DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips for personal computers have access times of 50 to 150 nanoseconds (billionths of a second). Static RAM (SRAM) has access times as low as 10 nanoseconds. Ideally, the access time of memory should be fast enough to keep up with the CPU. If not, the CPU will waste a certain number of clock cycles, which makes it slower.

Note, however, that reported access times can be misleading because most memory chips, especially DRAM chips, require a pause between back-to-back accesses. This is one reason why SRAM is so much faster than DRAM, even when the reported access times are equivalent; SRAM doesn't require any refreshes, so there is no pause between back-to-back accesses. A more important measurement of a chip's speed, therefore, is its cycle time, which measures how quickly two back-to-back accesses can be made.

Access time is also frequently used to describe the speed of disk drives. Disk access times are measured in milliseconds (thousandths of a second), often abbreviated as ms. Fast hard disk drives for personal computers boast access times of about 9 to 15 milliseconds. Note that this is about 200 times slower than average DRAM.

The access time for disk drives includes the time it actually takes for the read/write head to locate a sector on the disk (called the seek time). This is an average time since it depends on how far away the head is from the desired data.







Its depends on given below
These are the 3 parameters on which the disk access time is dependent.Disk access time is the interval b/n the time a computer makes a request for transfer of data from a disk system to the primary storage and the time this operation is completed.

Seek Time
- As soon as the read/write command is received by the disk unit,the read/write heads are 1st positioned on to the specified track/cylinder number.The time required to position the read/write head over the desired track is called seek time.
                          

Latency - Once the heads are positioned on the desired track,the head on the specified surface is activated.Since the disk is continuously rotating,the head should wait for the specified sector to come under it.This rotational waiting time required to spin the desired sector under the head is called latency(Rotational Delay Time).


                        

Transfer Rate - Transfer rate refers to the rate at which data are read from or written to the disk.
Suppose,rotational speed = 3600 rpm ,no. of sectors/track = 125 ,no.of bytes/sector = 512.

Amount of data transferred in one full revolution of the disk = 125 * 512 = 64,000 bytes = 64K bytes.
Transfer rate of the disk system = 64,000 * 3600/60 bytes/second = 38,40,000 bytes/second = 3/8 MB/second.