occurs and if the driver is shut down and unloaded ungracefully. Data caching in this case implies data copying that can result in lower I/O performance.
12.3 The I/O Subsystem
Each I/O device driver can provide a driver-specific set of I/O application programming interfaces to the applications. This arrangement requires each application to be aware of the nature of the underlying I/O device, including the restrictions imposed by the device. The API set is driver and implementation specific, which makes the applications using this API set difficult to port. To reduce this implementation-dependence, embedded systems often include an
The I/O subsystem defines a standard set of functions for I/O operations in order to hide device peculiarities from applications. All I/O device drivers conform to and support this function set because the goal is to provide uniform I/O to applications across a wide spectrum of I/O devices of varying types.
The following steps must take place to accomplish uniform I/O operations at the application-level.
1. The I/O subsystem defines the API set.
2. The device driver implements each function in the set.
3. The device driver exports the set of functions to the I/O subsystem.
4. The device driver does the work necessary to prepare the device for use. In addition, the driver sets up an association between the I/O subsystem API set and the corresponding device-specific I/O calls.
5. The device driver loads the device and makes this driver and device association known to the I/O subsystem. This action enables the I/O subsystem to present the illusion of an abstract or virtual instance of the device to applications.
This section discusses one approach to uniform I/O. This approach is general, and the goal is to offer insight into the I/O subsystem layer and its interaction with the application layer above and the device driver layer below. Another goal is to give the reader an opportunity to observe how the pieces are put together to provide uniform I/O capability in an embedded environment.
12.3.1 Standard I/O Functions
The I/O subsystem presented in the example in this section defines a set of functions as the standard I/O function set. Table 12.1 lists those functions that are considered part of the set in the general approach to uniform I/O. Again, remember that the example approach is used for illustration purposes in describing and discussing the I/O subsystem in general. The number of functions in the standard I/O API set, function names, and functionality of each is dependent on the embedded system and implementation. The next few sections put these functions into perspective.
Table 12.1: I/O functions.
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| Create | Creates a virtual instance of an I/O device |
| Destroy | Deletes a virtual instance of an I/O device |
| Open | Prepares an I/O device for use. |
| Close | Communicates to the device that its services are no longer required, which typically initiates device-specific cleanup operations. |
| Read | Reads data from an I/O device |
| Write | Writes data into an I/O device |
| Ioctl | Issues control commands to the I/O device (I/O control) |
Note that all these functions operate on a so-called 'virtual instance' of the I/O device. In other words, these functions do not act directly on the I/O device, but rather on the driver, which passes the operations to the I/O device. When the open, read, write, and close operations are described, these operations should be understood as acting indirectly on an I/O device through the agency of a virtual instance.
The create function creates a virtual instance of an I/O device in the I/O subsystem, making the device available for subsequent operations, such as open, read, write, and ioctl. This function gives the driver an opportunity to prepare the device for use. Preparations might include mapping the device into the system memory space, allocating an available interrupt request line (IRQ) for the device, installing an ISR for the IRQ, and initializing the device into a known state. The driver allocates memory to store instance-specific information for subsequent operations. A reference to the newly created device instance is returned to the caller.
The destroy function deletes a virtual instance of an I/O device from the I/O subsystem. No more operations are allowed on the device after this function completes. This function gives the driver an opportunity to perform cleanup operations, such as un-mapping the device from the system memory space, de-allocating the IRQ, and removing the ISR from the system. The driver frees the memory that was used to store instance-specific information.
The open function prepares an I/O device for subsequent operations, such as read and write. The device might have been in a disabled state when the create function was called. Therefore, one of the operations that the open function might perform is enabling the device. Typically, the open operation can also specify modes of use; for example, a device might be opened for read-only operations or write-only operations or for receiving control commands. The reference to the newly opened I/O device is returned to the caller. In some implementations, the
