Patent ID: 6393495
Filing Date: 2002-05-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A device driver operable to couple an operating system, provided in the memory of a computer system having a processor, to a computer interface of a controller device having a plurality of functional sub-elements, said device driver comprising:a) a plurality of operating system interface objects each presenting an operating system interface to said operating system, wherein a predetermined one of said operating system interface objects presents a system call operating system interface to said operating system; b) a plurality of computer interface objects each providing for the generation of programming values to be applied to said computer interface to dynamically configure operational features of a respective predetermined functional sub-element of said controller device, wherein said operational features define an operating mode of said respective predetermined functional sub-element; and c) a device driver library of processing routines callable by said plurality of operating system interface objects to process data and generate calls to said plurality of computer interface objects in predetermined combinations, wherein at least one of said plurality of operating system interface objects and said plurality of computer interface objects is a discrete dynamically loadable object selectively loaded separately and subsequently with respect to the loading and execution of said device driver library wherein said device driver library is coupled to and loaded with said predetermined one of said operating system interface objects to direct the issuance of system calls through said system call operating system interface to request operating system services, including the separate and subsequent dynamic loading of said one of said plurality of operating system interface objects and said plurality of computer interface objects, and wherein said device driver library includes an initialization routine for reading type data, from said controller device, corresponding to a predetermined one of said plurality of functional sub-elements, said device driver library providing for the selection of a predetermined system call, wherein the selection of said predetermined system call is subsequent to and dependent on said type data as read during execution of said initialization routine, to direct the discrete dynamic loading of said predetermined one of said computer interface objects to generate programming values to be applied through said computer interface to establish the operating mode of said predetermined one of said plurality of functional sub-elements of said controller device.