Operating Systems · Storage and I/O

I/O devices and interrupts

How the OS talks to devices, through polling, interrupts, or DMA, without the CPU babysitting every transfer.

Also known as: interrupts, polling, DMA, device drivers.

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• System calls and kernel mode: The controlled doorway, a trap into kernel mode, a program uses to ask the OS to do something on its behalf.

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• Hard disks and SSDs: How spinning disks and flash storage actually store and retrieve data, and why their performance shapes differ.

Related topics

• Hard disks and SSDs: How spinning disks and flash storage actually store and retrieve data, and why their performance shapes differ.