IRQ, DMA and I/O Ports
- Introduction -
IRQ – Interrupt Request
• Stands for "Interrupt Request." PCs use
interrupt requests to manage various
hardware operations.
• IRQs are hardware lines over which devices
can send interrupt signals to the
microprocessor
• Devices such as sound cards, modems, and
keyboards can all send interrupt requests to
the processor
• For example, when you press a key on your
keyboard it sends a signal to the processor via
an IRQ channel (usually IRQ 1) to let it know
that it needs to process some data.
• IRQ conflicts can occur when new hardware is installed
using the same channel of another hardware. For
example, it can cause problems if you have your mouse
on COM 1 (IRQ4) and a modem on COM 3 (IRQ4) both
using the same IRQ channel.
• You may find you cannot manually change your IRQ
settings (the Use automatic settings will be greyed
out), this is usually related to the ACPI (Advanced
Programmable Interrupt Controller) function in
Windows according to the Intel APIC Architecture.
• In later version of Windows , fully automated device
detection and configuration is used (PnP-Plug and Play)
but could still fall back to manual settings if necessary.
Default ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) IRQ Allocation:
• IRQ 0 — system timer (cannot be changed);
• IRQ 1 — keyboard controller (cannot be changed);
• IRQ 2 — cascaded signals from IRQs 8–15; — any devices configured to use IRQ 2 will actually
be using IRQ 9
• IRQ 3 — serial port controller for COM2 (shared with COM4, if present);
• IRQ 4 — serial port controller for COM1 (shared with COM3, if present);
• IRQ 5 — LPT port 2 or sound card;
• IRQ 6 — floppy disk controller;
• IRQ 7 — LPT port 1 or It is used for printers or for any parallel port if a printer is not present.
• IRQ 8 — RTC Timer
• IRQ 9 — The Interrupt is left open for the use of peripherals. open interrupt /
available or SCSI host adapter; — any devices configured to use IRQ 2 will actually be using
IRQ 9
• IRQ 10 — The Interrupt is left open for the use of peripherals. open interrupt /
available or SCSI or NIC;
• IRQ 11 — The Interrupt is left open for the use of peripherals. open interrupt /
available or SCSI or NIC;
• IRQ 12 — mouse on PS/2 connector;
• IRQ 13 — math co-processor or integrated floating point unit or inter-processor interrupt
(use depends on OS);
• IRQ 14 — primary ATA channel;
• IRQ 15 — secondary ATA channel;
• When a signal arrives on an IRQ channel, that is a
message to the CPU. The IRQ Controller is told that a
unit wants to get on the bus. Which unit is to be
identified through the IRQ number.
• Next the unit is admitted to the bus, to send or receive
data. When the transaction is completed, another
signal is transmitted to the CPU to indicate that the bus
is empty.
• The IRQs have different priorities, so the CPU knows
which IRQ have priority, if two signals are sent
simultaneously.
• The IRQ system is guided by a controller chip, like Intel
8259. It can handle 8 IRQ signals and two of them
together through IRQ 2 or 9. All PCs with ISA bus
include two 8259 chips.
To view your current IRQ assignments you can open Device Manager.
Click on START, click on CONTROL PANEL.
• Click on Performance and Maintenance.
• Click on System.
• Click on the Hardware tab.
• Click the DEVICE MANAGER button.
• Once you have Device Manager open, select VIEW from the toolbar menu, and
then click Resources by Type.
If you are experiencing problems with a newly installed/configured piece of
hardware and the drivers are installed correctly, then check to see if it has its own
IRQ channel.
DMA - Direct memory access
• Direct memory access (DMA) channels are
system pathways used by many devices to
transfer information directly to and from
memory.
• DMA is a system which allows an adapter to
transfer data to RAM without CPU
involvement.
Example of how DMA works
Diagram of DMA 8257 interface with Intel 8085
chip
• DMA data transfer signals are assigned to a DMA
controller on the motherboard. A controller chip (Intel
8237) has clearance to move data to and from RAM
through the I/O bus, without giving more work to the
CPU.
• Many hardware systems use DMA, including disk drive
controllers, graphics cards, network cards and sound
cards.
• Computers that have DMA channels can transfer data
to and from devices with much less CPU usage than
computers without a DMA channel. This allows
computation and data transfer to proceed in parallel
for faster data processing.
• Without DMA, when the CPU is using
programmed input/output, it is fully occupied
with read or write operation and is therefore
unavailable to perform other work.
• With DMA, the CPU initiates the transfer, does
other operations while the transfer is in progress,
and receives an interrupt from the DMA
controller when the operation is done.
• This feature is useful any time the CPU cannot
keep up with the rate of data transfer, or where
the CPU needs to perform useful work while
waiting for a relatively slow I/O data transfer.
Input/Output Ports
• Input/Output ports are memory addresses used by the
processor for direct communication with a device that has
sent an interrupt signal to the processor.
• Not be confused with Input/Output Port Interface which is
commonly termed as “I/O Ports” such as the socket
connectors behind a computer.
• The I/O port assignment can be made either manually or
automatically using PnP. When configuring the I/O port of
any device in your computer it is important that it does not
share the same I/O port as another device or you will
encounter a hardware conflict.
• The exchange of commands or data between the processor
and the device takes place through the I/O port address of the
device, which is a hexadecimal number.
• If a program needs to send a byte to the serial port, it issues
an OUT instruction to the CPU with the address of that serial
port. The CPU notifies the address bus to activate the I/O port
and the address bus signals the appropriate byte location on
the motherboard. The CPU then sends the data character over
the data bus to that memory location.
• No two devices can share the same I/O port. Many devices
use multiple I/O port addresses, which are expressed as a
range of hexadecimal numbers.
Common Example Serial Port Hardware Configuration Settings
COM Port #
IRQ
I/O Port Address
1
4
3F8-3FFh
2
3
2F8-2FFh
3
4
3E8-3EFh
4
3
2E8-2EFh
Common Example Parallel Port Hardware Configuration Settings
LPT Port #
IRQ
I/O Port Address Range
LPT1
7
378-37Fh or 3BC-38Fh
LPT2
5
278-27Fh or 378-37Fh
LPT3
5
278-27Fh
An I/O channel is a 3 digit hexadecimal number used to identify and signal a
peripheral device. They handle the transfer of data between internal memory and
peripheral equipment.
130h - Used for SCSI host adapters
140h - Used for SCSI host adapters
170h - Secondary IDE Interface
1F0h - Primary IDE Interface
220h - Typically used for Sound Blaster-type sound cards
240h - An alternate address for sound cards
278h - Assigned to LPT2 or LPT3 and generally used with IRQ 5
280h - Network Interface cards or the Aria Synthesizer
2A0h - An alternate address for NIC cards or the Aria Synthesizer
2E8h - Assigned to COM 4 and used with IRQ 3
2F8h - Assigned to COM 2 and used with IRQ 3
300h - Another Network Interface Card choice
320h – Another for Network cards, unless there is a SCSI host adapter or MIDI device
330h - A common place for the SCSI host adapters
340h - Another good alternative for the SCSI host adapter
360h - Another Network card choice
378h - The first parallel printer port (LPT 1) in color systems, commonly used with IRQ 7.
3BCh - The first parallel printer port (LPT1) in monochrome systems
3E8h - Assigned to COM 3 and used with IRQ 4
3F8h - Assigned to COM 1 and used with IRQ 4
• To view how your computer has assigned your I/O addresses, open Device
Manager, click View at the top of the Device Manager window, click
Resources by type, and then select Input/Output (IO). This should give
you an output similar to the picture shown below.
For a complete list of I/O Port address go to :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input/output_base_address
References
• http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module5a3.ht
m
• http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~cs573/fall2003/suppnotes/le
c273/lecture8/index.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input/output_base_addre
ss
• http://www.onlinecomputertips.com/pchardware/irq.html