Chapter 6 System Integration and Performance

1. Chapter 6System Integration and Performance

2. Chapter Goals • Implementation of the system bus and bus protocol. • Interaction of the CPU with peripheral devices. • Purpose and function of device controllers. • Interrupting coordination of actions of the CPU with secondary storage and I/O devices. • Improving computer system performance by buffers, caches, and data compression. INFO 225: Chapter 6

3. Chapter Topics INFO 225: Chapter 6

4. System Bus • Bus Terms • Bus Clock and Data Transfer Rate • Bus Protocol INFO 225: Chapter 6

5. System Bus Bus – a set of parallel communication lines that connect two or more devices. System Bus – connects the CPU with main memory and other system components. Peripheral Devices – devices other than the CPU and primary storage. INFO 225: Chapter 6

6. System Bus 1. What is carried by the bus line? Each bus line can carry a single bit value during any bus transfer operation. 2. Are there different types of bus? Yes, they are categorized based on types of information they carry. INFO 225: Chapter 6

7. System Bus Bus Types (or subsets of bus lines) • Data bus • moves data among computer system components. • Address bus • carries the bits of a memory address. • Control bus – • carries, commands, command responses, status codes, and similar messages. INFO 225: Chapter 6

8. System Bus INFO 225: Chapter 6

9. System Bus Bus Clock and Data Transfer Rate: • Bus clock pulse is a common timing reference for all attached devices. • Bus clock pulses are carried by one or more control bus lines. • Frequency of bus clock pulses is expressed in terms of MHz • Bus clock rate = is equal or a fraction of the CPU clock rate • Bus cycle time = Time interval between two pulses = 1/(Bus clock rate) e.g.: Bus clock rate = 200 MHz  Bus cycle time= 1/200MHz = 5 ns INFO 225: Chapter 6

10. System Bus • Bus length imposes a theoretical max on bus clock rate and a theoretical minimum on bus cycle time. • Bus capacity = data transfer unit x clock rate = 64 bits x 200 MHz = 1,600,000,000 Bps This measure of communication capacity is called: • Data transfer rate – rate at which data is transmitted through a medium or communication channel, as a measurement in data units per time interval. • To increase Max bus data transfer rate: Increase the clock rate or bus width • Clock rate is limited by bus length, conservative engineering, and peripheral device costs • Data bus lines should be at least equal to CPU word size. INFO 225: Chapter 6

11. System Bus Bus Protocol governs: The format, content and timingof data, memory addresses, and control messages sent across the bus. • Bus protocol has two effects on maximizing data transfer rate: • Use of efficient control signal while maintaining reliability of transmission • Regulates bus access by devices and avoiding the message collision using one of the two accesscontrol approaches. INFO 225: Chapter 6

12. System Bus Access Control Approaches: • Master-Slave Approach Bus Master (CPU) Bus Slaves (all other devices) • Multiple Master, or Peer-to-Peer Approach • Direct Memory Access • Uses DMA controller which is a device that assumes bus master (freeing CPU) • Multiple master bus • Uses Bus arbitration unit which is a simple processor attached to a multiple master bus INFO 225: Chapter 6

13. Logical and Physical Access • An I/O port is a communication pathway from the CPU to a peripheral device. • An I/O port is a logical abstraction used by the CPU and bus to interact with each peripheral device. INFO 225: Chapter 6

14. Figure 6-3a A typical personal computer motherboard INFO 225: Chapter 6

15. Logical and Physical Access Figure 6-3b: Motherboard with eight I/O ports (slots) and two devices or device controllers attached to the leftmost I/O port INFO 225: Chapter 6

16. Logical and Physical Access • The CPU and bus interact with each peripheral device as if it were a storage device containing one or more bytes stored in sequentially numbered addresses. • A read/write operation from/to this hypothetical storage device is called a logical access. • The set of sequentially numbered storage locations is called a linear address space. INFO 225: Chapter 6

17. Logical and Physical Access Example of Logical Access: The CPU thinks of the disk as a linear sequence of storage locations, each holding one sector of data, and sends a single number to identify the location it wants to read. Example of Logical Access: To access the appropriate sector physically, the location within the assumed linear address space must be converted into the corresponding platter, sector, and track. Linear addresses can be assigned to physical sectors in any number of ways. The above fig minimizes head-to-head switching and track-to-track seeks. The disk drive or device controller, translates the linear sector address into the corresponding physical sector location on a specific track. INFO 225: Chapter 6

18. Logical and Physical Access • CPU communicates with keyboards and sound cards only in terms of sequential streams of bytes that fill the same memory location. The concept of an address or location does not exists. • Video or printer use logical storage location. The device controller translates logical write operation into the physical actions necessary to illuminate the corresponding pixel or place ink at the corresponding position on the page. INFO 225: Chapter 6

19. Device Controllers • Functions of device controllers • Mainframe Channels INFO 225: Chapter 6

20. Device Controllers Storage and I/O devices normally are connected to the system bus through a device controller. INFO 225: Chapter 6

21. Device Controllers Functions of Device Controllers: • Implement the bus interface and access protocols • Translate logical accesses into physical accesses • Permit several devices to share access to a bus connection INFO 225: Chapter 6

22. Device Controllers • Implement the bus interface and access protocols: • Device controllers translate signals from the bus control lines into appropriate commands to the storage or I/O device. • Data and status signals from the device are translated into appropriate control and data signals. INFO 225: Chapter 6

23. Device Controllers • Translate logical accesses into physical accesses • Perform some or all of the conversion between logical and physical access commands. Example: The device controller converts a logical access to a specific disk sector within a linear address space into a command to read from a specific head, track, and sector. INFO 225: Chapter 6

24. Device Controllers • Permit several devices to share access to a bus connection • The number of physical I/O ports on the system bus may be less than the number of storage and I/O devices. • Most storage and I/O devices operate slower than the system bus data transfer rate. • Communication capacity of a single bus connection can be shared among multiple slower devices. INFO 225: Chapter 6

25. Device Controllers Mainframe Channels • In many mainframe computer systems, adevice controller can be a dedicated special-purpose computer called an I/O channel or simply a channel. • The term channelis used by IBM in 300 series mainframe, and gained a generic meaning. Other vendors of mainframe use terms such as peripheral processing unit or front end processor. INFO 225: Chapter 6

26. Device Controllers Mainframe Channels • The difference between an I/O channel and a device controller is a function of power and capability in several key areas: • Number of devices that can be controlled. • Variability in type and capability of attached devices. • Maximum communication capacity. INFO 225: Chapter 6

27. Device Controllers Mainframe Channels • Example: • A disk controller in a desktop can control 2 disk drives. • A secondary storage channel in a mainframe computer can control several dozen storage devices of various types such as magnetic disks, optical disks, and magnetic tape drives. • Another channel in the same mainframe may control up to 100 video display terminals or point-of-sale devices. INFO 225: Chapter 6

28. Technology Focus - SCSI SCSI: Small Computer System Interface • SCSI is a family of standard buses designed primarily for secondary storage devices. • There are 9 SCSI standards: • SCSI-1 • SCSI-2 • SCSI-3 • Ultra SCSI • Ultra2 SCSI • Ultra3 SCSI • Ultra320 SCSI • Ultra640 SCSI • Serial Attached SCSI • There are multiple variations of several SCSI standards e.g. fast, wide, differential, etc. INFO 225: Chapter 6

29. Technology Focus - SCSI • A SCSI bus implements • A low-level physical I/O protocol. • A high-level logical device control protocol. • A SCSI bus can connect up to 16 devices. • Each device is assigned a unique device ID 0-15 • A SCSI bus can be up to 25 meters • Logically the bus is divided into control & data bus • The control bus transmit control & status signals • The data bus transmits data and device ID numbers • SCSI-1 has 8 bits wide data bus • Later SCSI standards use a 16-bit data bus. INFO 225: Chapter 6

30. Technology Focus - SCSI SCSI controller, bus, and secondary storage devices. A SCSI controller translates signals between the system bus and the SCSI bus. INFO 225: Chapter 6

31. Technology Focus - SCSI A partial listing of SCSI controller signals INFO 225: Chapter 6

32. Technology Focus - SCSI A SCSI bus has desirable characteristics: • Non-proprietary standard • High data transfer rate • Multiple master capability • High-level (logical) data access commands • Multiple command execution • Interleaved command execution INFO 225: Chapter 6

33. Interrupts • Definition of an Interrupt • Interrupt Handlers • Multiple Interrupts • Stack Processing • Performance Effects INFO 225: Chapter 6

34. Interrupts • Secondary storage and I/O device data transfer rates are much slower than the CPU. • Slow access times and data transfer rates are due to mechanical limitations. INFO 225: Chapter 6

35. Interrupts Secondary storage and I/O devices have slower data transfer rates than the CPU. INFO 225: Chapter 6

36. Interrupts • The CPU incur one or more wait states if it waits for a device to complete an access request. • How to prevent such inefficient use of the CPU? • Peripheral devices may interact with the CPU using interrupt signals. INFO 225: Chapter 6

37. Interrupts Interrupt – a signal to the CPU that some event has occurred that requires the CPU to execute a specific program or process. Physically, an interrupt is an electrical signal generated by a peripheral device and then sent over the control bus. A portion of the CPU continuously monitors the bus for interrupt signals and copies them to an interrupt register. The interrupt signal is a numeric value called interrupt code, usually equivalent to the bus port number of the peripheral device sending the interrupt. INFO 225: Chapter 6

38. Interrupts At the conclusion of each execution cycle, the control unit checks the interrupt register for a nonzero value. • If one is present, the CPU suspends execution of the current process, resets the interrupt register to zero, and proceeds to process the interrupt. • When the interrupt has been processed, the CPU resumes executing the suspended process. INFO 225: Chapter 6

39. Interrupts • There is one operating system service routine, called an interrupt handler, to process each possible interrupt. • Each interrupt handler is a separate program stored in a separate part of primary storage. • In order to process an interrupt, the CPU must load and execute the first instruction of the correct interrupt handler. • An interrupt table stores the memory address of the first instruction of each interrupt handler. • When the CPU detects an interrupt, it executes a master interrupt handler program called the supervisor. • The supervisor examines the interrupt code stored in the interrupt register and uses it as an INDEX to the interrupt table. • The supervisor extracts the corresponding memory address and transfers control to the interrupt handler at that address. INFO 225: Chapter 6

40. Interrupts Multiple Interrupts When multiple interrupts occur: Which interrupt has priority? What is done with the interrupt that does not have priority? INFO 225: Chapter 6

41. Interrupts Multiple Interrupts Interrupts are classified into the following categories: • I/O event: completion of a read/write operation • Error condition: SW: open non-existing file. HW: dropped modem connection • Service request: issued by application programs to request OS services. • An OS groups interrupts by their importance or priority. • For example, if a hardware error interrupt code is detected while and I/O interrupt is being processed, the I/O processing is suspended and the hardware error is processed immediately. INFO 225: Chapter 6

42. Interrupts Stack Processing • Stack – is a reserved area of main memory that is access in a Last-In, First-Out basis. (LIFO) • Push – adding data of registers to the stack. • Pop – removing data from the stack. • Machine state – The saved register values in the stack. • Stack overflow error– push values to a stack which is filled to the capacity • Stack pointer– A special purpose register pointing to the next empty address in the stack INFO 225: Chapter 6

43. Interrupts Processing Effects Figure 6-7 summarizes the sequence of events that occurs when processing an interrupt. INFO 225: Chapter 6

44. Application program Interrupts Hardware Detect interrupt Push registers on stack Increment stack pointer Branch to supervisor Supervisor Search interrupt table Reset interrupt register PUSH registers on stack Increment stack pointer Branch to interrupt handler Interrupt Processing Interrupt handler Process interrupt POP stack Supervisor Decrement stack pointer POP stack INFO 225: Chapter 6 Application Program

45. Buffers and Caches • Definition of Buffer • Diminishing Returns • Cache • Primary Storage Caches INFO 225: Chapter 6

46. Buffers and Caches Buffer – a small storage area used to hold data in transit from one device to another. • Resolves differences in data transfer rate or data transfer unit size. • Required when there is a difference in data transfer unit size. • If a buffer is not large enough to hold a full page, a buffer overflow occurs. INFO 225: Chapter 6

47. Buffers and Caches INFO 225: Chapter 6

48. Buffers and Caches Diminishing Returns – as buffer size increases, CPU cycle consumption decreases at a nearly linear rate, but total bus cycles decrease at a diminishing rate. INFO 225: Chapter 6

49. Buffers & Caches Bus & CPU cycles consumed for a 64KB data transfer with various buffer sizes (Table 6-4) INFO 225: Chapter 6

50. Buffers and Caches INFO 225: Chapter 6