A system can give the user the impression that I/O is synchronous, when actually the CPU does asynchronous I/O. What are the pros and cons of providing such an interface?
The CPU typically does asynchronous I/O, switching itself to another process while the I/O device is doing a transfer. But the user program is provided with a synchronous interface, so that programming becomes simpler, and the user does not have to bother with the low-level details of I/O device timing and interrupts. A synchronous interface means an interface that looks like a function call, and returns only when the transfer is finished, by blocking the process in the meanwhile, if necessary.
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