ABSTRACT
We have studied two of the thr ee main components of a modern computer system: the memory and the central pr ocessing unit. The r emaining major component, the
input/output
(I/O) system, is just as important as the first two. It is always necessary for a useful computer system to be able to receive information from the outside world, whether that information happens to be program instructions, interactive commands, data to be pr ocessed, or (usually) some combination of these things. Likewise, regardless of the memory capacity or computational capabilities of a system, it is essentially useless unless the results of those computations can be conveyed to the human user (or to another machine for further processing, display, storage, etc.). Anyone who has ever bought an expensive audio amplifier knows that the r esulting sound is only as good as the signal sour ce fed to the inputs and the speaker system that converts the amplified signal into sound waves for the listener to hear. Without a clean sound sour ce and high fidelity speakers, the amplifier is nothing more than an expensive boat anchor. Similarly, without an I/O system able to quickly and efectively interact with the user and other devices, a computer might just as well be thr own overboard with a stout chain attached.
