FIFO Full Form

What is the full form of FIFO?

FIFO stands for First In, First Out. It is a type of data handling. First In, First Out (FIFO) means that products that are stored first are to be retrieved first. Technically, the firstly stored elements in the data will be removed first, while the later stored elements will be removed later. In electronics, for the first time, the FIFO approach was used in 1969 by Peter Alfke.

This Story also Contains

1. What is the full form of FIFO?
2. Characteristics of FIFO
3. Advantages of FIFO
4. Disadvantages of FIFO
5. Applications

The two basic operations performed by FIFO are enqueued and dequeue. Enqueue is the addition of an element at the end of the data container, while dequeue is the removal of the first element. In FIFO, the dequeue operation is performed followed by enqueue.

Characteristics of FIFO

The main function of FIFO is to structure the data in the form of a Queue. FIFO does so by inserting the elements one below the other such that the first (or oldest) element would be listed at the top while others are listed below.

This also means that the first element listed at the top will be out first, followed by succeeding elements. The FIFO approach follows the operating system algorithm so that every process will have CPU time for functions. FIFO uses a fixed memory such that memory utilisation does not vary.

Advantages of FIFO

FIFO is easy to understand and implement. It founds its applications in data structure, programming, communication, accounting, logistics, and transportation. It also gives every process CPU time. FIFO regulates buffering time and flow control between hardware and software in electronic circuits.

Disadvantages of FIFO

It does not support any other data structure methodology other than First In, First Out. Due to this, the CPU also cannot access files randomly. Also, it does not interrupt the linearity of the elements for a fair execution. Furthermore, the effectiveness is low.

Applications

FIFO is used in Disk Scheduling Algorithms to decide the processes related to the sequence of execution. FIFO is applicable to construct various data structures like the Queue and its variants. This is also useful for programming.

FIFO is also used in ICT/Operating systems as a communication medium between various processes. It is also beneficial for logistics and transportation because of its characteristic that first elements will be stocked out first.

In electronics, FIFO is used in flip-flops, SRAM, latches, etc. Another application of FIFO would be a computer-controlled traffic signal system.