I/O Wall refers to a critical performance bottleneck that occurs as a result of the microprocessor's inability to move data fast enough via I/O to cope with the increase in processing power. This problem is a result of the disparity between the performance of the microprocessor and various other network and storage devices.

Cause

The I/O Wall is a result of the disparity between the performance of the processor and the various I/O network and storage devices.

• Power-limited - Insufficient amount of power budget to move enough data quickly enough
• Pin-limited - Insufficient amount of pins to move all the data necessary