SSC IMD SA 2017 – Question 150

Which of the following implementations does Windows NT use for I/O?

• Message-passing
• Draft-passing
• Secondary memory
• Cache

Detailed Explanation:

The correct answer is a) Message-passing (मेसेज-पासिंग).

In the Windows NT operating system architecture (which forms the core of modern Windows systems):

• The I/O system is designed around a packet-driven, message-passing architecture.
• Every I/O request initiated by an application is packaged by the I/O Manager into a standardized data structure known as an I/O Request Packet (IRP).
• The I/O Manager passes this IRP as a message to the highest-level driver in the driver stack. Drivers can process the packet, modify it, or pass it down to lower-level bus and hardware drivers via message-passing mechanisms.
• Once the physical I/O completes, the IRP travels back up the stack to notify the caller asynchronously.