Abstract: Control apparatus allows application software written for use with peripheral devices manufactured by one company to run with other peripheral devices. The apparatus intercepts device-specific control commands generated by the software and translates the commands into commands which are compatible with the peripheral connected to the system. Non-device specific commands are passed untranslated through the control apparatus to the peripheral. More specifically, registers within the control apparatus which must be programmed with parameters unique to a particular peripheral cannot be accessed by the application software while other nonspecific registers remain read and write accessible. Peripheral-specific parameters are instead changed by a secondary processor which uses special hardware to minimize interference with the main processor.