Input and Output

Part 1 - Overview

Computers process, manipulate and send data according to instructions from a user. Each computer has input and output interfaces to allow you to connect input or output devices. The input device allows information to enter the computer, and the output device allows information to exit the computer. Without providing the ability to enter and extract information, the computer is nothing more than an expensive box of colored lights. In this section you will learn about the basic and most common I/O devices.

You will also learn about the basic Connection types used for I/O Devices. and the different clasess of devices. Only the most common connectors will be introduced in thihs section, however A more advanced version will be presented in future upgrades.

There are a number of types of I/O methods. Even Reading And Writing To/From Storage devices, and even memory can be considerd a form of I/O. There are two general Types of I/O:

• Synchronous I/O on the other hand, halts all activitiees until transmission is completed, and then continues. This method is also known as Blocking I/O, and is fairlyy expensive because it results in wasted processing power, as the system is unable to perform any other taskes while I/O operation is in probgress
• Asynchronous I/O is a form of input/output processing that permits other processing to continue before the transmission has completed. The system accepts the input, and is able to continue its work, before receiving the complete transmission. Usually the processor does othehr tasks while the I/O Operation is in progress.
• Multitasking in its simplistic form, takes advantage of Asynchronous I/O to allow it to perform more than one task at a time.