CST334 Week 7

  

  This week I explored how computers handle input/output and manage storage at both the hardware and software levels. I started by learning about I/O devices and the role of the bus, which acts as the main pathway for transferring bytes between the CPU, memory, and peripherals. I learned about three primary ways the CPU interacts with I/O are polling, where the CPU repeatedly checks if a device is ready; interrupt driven, where the device signals the CPU when it’s ready, and direct memory access, where data is transferred directly between the device and memory without continuous CPU involvement.

    Next I learned more about how physical hard drives work. They store data on spinning metal disks called platters, which are read and written to by specialized heads. I learned how to calculate a drives average rotational delay which is the time it takes for the correct sector to rotate under the read/write head and how that, along with seek time and transfer rate, affects overall performance. It was very interesting to see how random versus sequential data transfers compare to each other, and how much faster sequential operations can be due to the access times.

    Finally, I learned about files, directories, and inodes. Each file has an inode number that serves as its identification which keeps metadata information like permissions, size, and last access time. Directories dont hold file data themselves but they contain references to inodes, making them work like a map that connects filenames to the actual storage location. This gave me a window into how operating systems organize and track files under the hood.

    This week, while filled with new information. helped me see where the connections between low level hardware design and high level file system structures interact.