Architecture
Memory-Mapped I/O
A technique where peripheral registers are accessed through the same address space as memory.
Detailed Explanation
Instead of special I/O instructions, memory-mapped I/O uses standard load/store instructions to access peripherals. Peripherals decode their assigned address range and respond like memory. This simplifies programming and processor design.
The processor's address map allocates regions to RAM, ROM, and various peripherals. Software accesses peripheral registers using pointers. Volatile qualifiers prevent compiler optimization of I/O accesses.