A physical device for input or output, which interchanges data with the computer in large blocks. XXIth Century PCs can perform such transfers of data concurrently with other activities. Examples of block devices include disk, tape, and CD-ROM drives. See also Character Device.
A device that reads or writes blocks of bytes as a group. Disk drives, for example, can read and write blocks of 512 bytes or more See also: character device
a device that sends blocks of data with each read or write
a storage device that supports reading and (optionally) writing data in fixed-size blocks, sectors, or clusters
A device such as a disk drive that moves information in groups of bytes (blocks) rather than one byte at a time.
A device such as magnetic tape or a disk drive, that naturally transfers data in blocks of fixed size. Opposed to character device.
A block device is a device that is designed to operate in terms of the block I/O supported by Digital UNIX. It is accessed through the buffer cache. A block device has a block device driver associated with it.
(1.) One of the types of files in the AIX file system, described by an i-node. (2.) A device that is accessed by means of an AIX device driver.