Patent ID: 8356298

Claim:
A method comprising: transmitting input and output data between a computer and a peripheral device, the peripheral device having a first network interface, the computer having hardware resources including a second network interface, and a controller that is designed to make available a virtual machine system by mapping the hardware resources including the second network interface onto logical interfaces in virtual machines, the second network interface of the computer and the first network interface of the peripheral device being connected to a network without a further computer local to the peripheral device connected in-between; mapping a peripheral device adapter provided in the computer onto a logical peripheral device interface in one of the virtual machines by the controller, wherein the peripheral device adapter is adapted specifically to a certain peripheral device; and exchanging input and output data between the peripheral device and the virtual machine via the first network interface, the network, the second network interface, the peripheral device adapter, and the logical peripheral device interface while bypassing the logical interfaces mapping the second network interface into the virtual machines, the exchanging input and output data comprising: receiving at least one data packet from the peripheral device identified by a network address of the first network interface via the network; making the input and output data contained in the at least one data packet available to a data interface of the peripheral device adapter; transmitting the input and output data made available to the data interface of the peripheral device adapter to the logical peripheral device interface in the virtual machine by the controller; and transmitting the input and output data from the logical peripheral device interface to a program running in the virtual machine.