Operating Systems Question Bank with Answers 12

Distinguish between traditional interrupt-based I/O and DMA-based I/O.

Question:

Distinguish between traditional interrupt-based I/O and DMA-based I/O.

Answer:

Traditional Interrupt-based I/O:

• Device interrupts the CPU when it needs attention

• CPU is required to perform the I/O operation

• CPU stops processing other jobs while servicing the interrupt

DMA-based I/O:

• CPU is required to initialize memory, registers, counters

• DMA controller (not CPU) handles I/O operations

• Interrupt generated each time an entire block is transferred

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