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49b2fd6e JC |
1 | .. include:: <isonum.txt> |
2 | ||
3 | ============ | |
4 | Introduction | |
5 | ============ | |
6 | ||
7 | The main purpose of the Industrial I/O subsystem (IIO) is to provide support | |
8 | for devices that in some sense perform either | |
9 | analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) or digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) | |
10 | or both. The aim is to fill the gap between the somewhat similar hwmon and | |
11 | :doc:`input <../input>` subsystems. Hwmon is directed at low sample rate | |
12 | sensors used to monitor and control the system itself, like fan speed control | |
13 | or temperature measurement. :doc:`Input <../input>` is, as its name suggests, | |
14 | focused on human interaction input devices (keyboard, mouse, touchscreen). | |
15 | In some cases there is considerable overlap between these and IIO. | |
16 | ||
17 | Devices that fall into this category include: | |
18 | ||
19 | * analog to digital converters (ADCs) | |
20 | * accelerometers | |
21 | * capacitance to digital converters (CDCs) | |
22 | * digital to analog converters (DACs) | |
23 | * gyroscopes | |
24 | * inertial measurement units (IMUs) | |
25 | * color and light sensors | |
26 | * magnetometers | |
27 | * pressure sensors | |
28 | * proximity sensors | |
29 | * temperature sensors | |
30 | ||
31 | Usually these sensors are connected via :doc:`SPI <../spi>` or | |
32 | :doc:`I2C <../i2c>`. A common use case of the sensors devices is to have | |
33 | combined functionality (e.g. light plus proximity sensor). |