Patent ID: 7689723

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of implementing multiple virtual device nodes within a single operating system instance for a single hardware instance, the method comprising: in a computer system's devices tree data structure within a single isolated operating system instance, creating a hardware device node for a hardware device of the computer system; for each of multiple virtualizations of the hardware device, creating an associated pseudo clone node in the devices tree data structure, wherein each pseudo clone node has a major number of a pseudo clone driver and a different minor number, wherein said creating comprises: generating a configuration file for the pseudo clone driver, said configuration file including, for each of the virtualizations: a name of the pseudo clone driver; an instance identifier identifying an associated instance of the pseudo clone driver; a major number of a driver for the hardware device; and a virtual port of the hardware device; associating a separate communication address with each of the virtualizations; and for each of the virtualizations, configuring a corresponding communication filter in the hardware device to accept communications only for the associated pseudo clone node.