I/O, storage and file systems

The central question

How do applications access devices and keep data beyond execution?

First half

Device interaction, interrupts and DMA, buffering and caching, storage characteristics.

Second half

Files, directories, allocation and metadata; persistence; introductory crash consistency and journaling.

What you should be able to do

• Explain the roles of buffers, caches and device interaction.
• Trace a file operation and explain why a crash can threaten consistency.

A concrete example

Follow a write from application buffers toward persistent storage and consider a crash at different stages.

Reading reference

Operating System Concepts, 10th edition: Selected sections of Chapters 11–15. We use selected sections rather than every slide in each chapter.

Lecture materials

The slide PDF and illustrated reading are being prepared. Links will appear here when they are available.