Introduction to Computer Organization

20 Input/Output

We’ll look at the I/O subsystem in this chapter. The I/O subsystem is what programs use to communicate with the outside world, meaning devices other than the CPU and memory. Most programs read data from one or more input devices, process the data, and then write the results to one or more output devices.

Keyboards and mice are typical input devices; display screens and printers are typical output devices. Although most people don’t think of them this way, devices such as magnetic disks, solid-state drives, USB sticks, and so forth, are also I/O devices.

We’ll start the chapter by looking at some of the timing characteristics ...