Patent ID: 8286195

Claim:
A computer-enabled method for controlling hardware shared by multiple operating systems, the method comprising: running a first operating system on a first central processing unit (CPU) associated with a computing device, the first operating system having a first set of device drivers, the first set of device drivers enabled such that they access the shared hardware, the shared hardware comprising a hardware resource; running a second operating system on a second CPU associated with the same computing device, the second operating system having a second set of device drivers, the second set of device drivers disabled such that they do not access the shared hardware; such that the first and second operating systems run simultaneously; detecting, by the hardware resource, an input for the second operating system; and switching operating system hardware control, comprising: disabling the first set of device drivers, wherein at least a portion of the first set of device drivers each have a stop communication control function that stops a respective device driver of the first set of device drivers from communicating with the shared hardware; and wherein disabling the first set of device drivers comprises sending a stop message to the stop communication control function of the at least a portion of the first set of device drivers; and enabling the second set of device drivers such that they access the shared hardware; the second operating system using the second set of device drivers to access the input; and the second operating system processing the input.