Patent ID: 7351151

Claim:
A board set and gaming kernel for a game device comprising: an upgraded processor board having an industry standard form factor and configured as a single-board system that supports an operating system, and wherein the upgraded processor board has at least one connector operably interfaced thereto; an input/output (I/O) adapter board having at least one connector operably interfaced thereto and connectable to said at least one connector on said upgraded processor board, and configured to have at least one interface for connecting to at least one gaming cabinet, and further having a form factor configured to attach to said upgraded processor board using said at least one connector, wherein the combination of said upgraded processor board and said I/O board provides enhanced functionality as compared to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) processor board; and the gaming kernel comprising: the operating system associated with said upgraded processor board; a game manager operably disposed in a layer above said operating system, wherein the game manager drives independent game-specific processes that are not utilized as game shared objects, wherein said game manager includes a single application program interface useable by game applications for communication with the game manager, and wherein the game applications are non-shared, executable objects; thereby enhancing game security and design flexibility; an I/O board server operably disposed in the layer above said operating system; and user level modules operably disposed in the layer above said operating system, wherein said user level modules are configured to send, receive, and process information from gaming machine I/O devices, and wherein said user level modules and said I/O board server are configured to perform logical operations associated with operation of at least one gaming machine I/O device connectable to said adapter board, wherein said gaming kernel facilitates a conversion of the upgraded processor board to a game-specific processor board for the gaming device.