Analysis of computer peripheral interference

Abstract

Among the limiting factors in computer performance are the rates at which information can be transferred into and out of the memory. Obviously the effective data transfer rate depends on the characteristics of the peripheral unit (speed of data collection or data posting) and the characteristics of the central processor (speed of filing of data). As peripherals are becoming faster and more numerous, the requests by the peripherals for data filing by the processor can become so dense that they can not be accommodated. This point will occur sometime before the total number of requests multiplied by the service times for those requests (namely the peripheral load factor) becomes one.