Abstract: A method is proposed for automatically installing an auxiliary unit (30) on a computer (10) that is not yet prepared for the auxiliary unit (30). Upon connecting a new auxiliary unit (30) to the computer a registration routine (18) is carried out, within which operating routines (24) required for operating the auxiliary unit (30) are installed, after whose installation the auxiliary unit (30) is switchable from a basic mode to an auxiliary-unit specific operation mode. If the operating routines (24) are not yet present in the computer (10), they are first transmitted to it by the auxiliary unit (30). According to the invention it is determined whether a required operating routine (24) has to be transmitted by installing a background process (20) on the computer (10) which, upon the connection of an auxiliary unit (30), checks whether identification information (50) re-transmitted to the computer (10) upon request is already stored on the computer (10).

Abstract: A standardized 802.11 hardware control interface may be provided such that a driver may communicate with any one or more of a variety of network adapters.

Abstract: A method for collecting information regarding monitors connected to Window-based computer systems. A monitor class definition is established, and a monitor information provider is created. The monitor information provider is loaded on a Windows-based computer, which includes at least one monitor. The monitor information provider gathers serial number and model information of the monitor.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus capable of USB-connecting a device compatible with USB connection, the apparatus has a management unit configured to manage driver information representing whether to activate a device driver when the device is USB-connected. The information processing apparatus also has a device information acquisition unit configured to acquire device information of the device. The information processing apparatus also has a setting unit configured to set up the driver under control of an USB core driver to control the device using a device driver corresponding to the driver information when the driver information matches the device information.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which a device pre-enables application programs of a computer system to work with the device when the device is connected to the computer system. A set of data is obtained from a device, such as by an installer at installation time. The set of data includes information that identifies one or more computer system application programs that the device desires to work with when each application program runs. When the data set is obtained, the application program is enabled (e.g., given appropriate permissions) such that the application program may communicate data with the device when the program is run on the computer system. In one implementation, a device driver provides an installer with access to the data set, which may also include additional information such as application configuration parameters. The installer may be automatically run on the computer system upon initial device detection.

Abstract: A printer receives image information from a host computer and performs printing based on the image information. When an optional unit is newly attached to the printer, the printer changes the device ID which is selected from an ID ROM in accordance with the optional unit. Then output from an interface circuit is changed so that the host computer detects the change of the output from the interface circuit. The host computer makes a device-ID request to the printer to obtain the device ID corresponding to the optional device. Then the host computer determines whether or not a printer driver which is currently operative corresponds to the printer with the newly-attached optional device.

Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for controlling the enumeration of a multifunction peripheral device on a host computer. A multifunction peripheral device may include a generic and non-generic functional units connected to a host interface. The device may store in its non-volatile memory one or more drivers for the non-generic functional unit. The peripheral device may further include a controller for controlling the order in which the generic and non-generic functional units are exposed to and enumerated on the host system. The controller may include a switch operable to switch on and off the generic and non-generic functional units thereby controlling the order in which these units are exposed to and enumerated on the host system.

Abstract: A printing system includes a computer with an operating system, and a PCI device communicating with the computer. The PCI device includes a receiving module, a detection module, an installing module and a program module. The program module stores a printer driver program compatible with the computer operating system. The receiving module is capable of receiving instructions sent to the PCI device from the computer operating system. The detection module is capable of detecting whether there is a printer driver program for an attached printer stored in the computer after the receiving module receives the instructions. The installing module is capable of installing the printer driver program stored by the program module onto the computer if the proper printer driver program is not detected in the computer by the detection module.

Abstract: A software-source monitoring unit monitors a software source that provides software required for using the peripheral device, and stores data pertaining to acquirable software and the software source in a corresponding manner in a memory unit. A peripheral-device monitoring unit monitors connection status of the peripheral device. A software-source selecting unit selects the software source based on the data stored in the memory unit when the peripheral-device monitoring unit detects the connection of the peripheral device. An install executing unit acquires the software from the software source selected by the software-source selecting unit.

Abstract: A printing method for a printing system having a plurality of image forming devices and a plurality of data transfer devices, includes a judgment step of judging whether image deficiency will occur in printing data transferred from the first data transfer device to the plurality of image forming devices, and a control step of providing control for transferring the data from the second data transfer device to the image forming device when it is judged in the judgment step that image deficiency will occur.

Abstract: A computer system includes a hard disk drive with an operating system installed therein, and a PCI card communicating with the hard disk drive. The PCI card includes a storage unit, which includes a receiving module, a detection module, an installing module, and a program module storing a driver program of the PCI card being compatible with the operating system. The receiving module is capable of receiving an executing instruction sent by the operating system to the storage unit. The detection module is capable of detecting whether there is a driver program installed in the hard disk drive after the receiving module receiving the executing instruction. The installing module is capable of installing the driver program in the hard disk drive when there is no compatible driver program installed in the hard disk drive. The method for installing the driver program in the computer system is further provided.

Abstract: Provided are an apparatus and method for diagnosing operating system resources supporting universal serial bus (USB) device driver development for a Linux system. The apparatus and method device enable driver developers to simply perform, without professional knowledge of hardware and operating systems, operating system resource diagnosis such as detection and extraction of hardware information required for device driver development, search and change of various descriptor configurations, and process of data input/output through an endpoint. Thus, effort and cost required for a device driver development process are reduced, and it is possible to improve the efficiency of Linux USB device driver development work.

Abstract: A host apparatus which uses an image foaming apparatus forming an image includes: a first installer which installs a first device driver to use the image forming apparatus; a second installer which installs a second device driver, which has more setting items than the first device driver, to use the image forming apparatus; and a configuration selector which selects one of a first configuration where the first device driver is deleted and only the second device driver remains, when the second installer installs the second device driver, and a second configuration where both the first device driver and the second device driver remain.

Abstract: A system includes an interface device that executes a driver and a processing device that executes instructions to implement a virtual machine, and to implement a virtual network interface card that is configurable to enable communication between the driver and the virtual machine. The processor executes instructions to configure the virtual network interface card.

Abstract: Device, system, and method of handling delayed transactions. For example, an apparatus to handle delayed transactions in a computing system includes: a slave unit adapted to pseudo-randomly reject a request received from a master unit.

Abstract: A driving method of a driverless peripheral device with a cross platform overcomes the inconveniences faced by users of prior art in having to install a driver and/or an application program when a peripheral device is connected with their computer. The present invention utilizes an interface of the homepage stored in a driverless peripheral device for driving the peripheral device with a cross platform. The present invention has the advantages that it doesn't require a driver for any peripheral device, nor an application program. Furthermore, it can execute the necessary operations directly and has cross platform functions.

Abstract: According to one or more embodiments a logical virtual device may provide the desired functionality using either a virtual device or a physical device connected to a virtual machine. When the physical device is available, a guest operating system executing on a virtual machine (VM) can be instructed to utilize the physical device. When the VM is migrated between hosts of different underlying hardware, or when the physical device becomes unavailable, e.g., through dynamic reconfiguration or reallocation of physical resources, the guest operating system can be instructed to utilize the virtual device instead.

Abstract: Example methods and apparatus for storing and providing application runtime data are disclosed. An example method include receiving, at a data list manager, a set of identifiers associated, respectively, with one or more persistently stored structured data records. The example method further includes storing, by the data list manager, the set of identifiers. The example method also includes receiving, at the data list manager, a request for one or more of the structured data records and retrieving, by the data list manager, the one or more requested structured data records. The example method still further includes storing, by the data list manager, the retrieved data records in correspondence with their respective identifiers and providing, by the data list manager, the retrieved data records for display to a user.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to minimizing the dependency of source code on the characteristics of a set-top box's in-band (streaming video or audio) hardware. The set-top box software consists of a device driver layer, which is intimately aware of hardware characteristics, an application layer, which is relatively unaware of any hardware details, a middleware layer which is also relatively unaware of any hardware details, and a device translation layer (DTL). In the DTL, all of the translation between device abstractions to device driver calls that were formerly made in middleware are moved down to an engine manager. Middleware thus becomes device-independent with respect to in-band devices, and porting Middleware to new hardware becomes trivial.

Abstract: Abstracting communication with a plurality of containers. Each container encapsulates or hosts a module (e.g., a web service, a database, etc.) associated with a distributed application. A meta-container communicates with drivers that interface with each of the containers. The meta-container represents an abstraction and a virtualization of the containers in the hierarchy. Each container may also be a meta-container for other containers. The recursion and layered hierarchy provide flexible, extensible, and efficient management of the distributed application.

Abstract: A method and system to access native drivers in a computer using a generic application interface. An embodiment of the method may include providing the generic application interface to allow access to multiple peripheral devices, where the interface is independent of the device-specific features of the peripheral devices. The interface may include generic routines commonly shared by the peripheral devices. The method may further include using the interface to call the generic routines as a function of device-specific features of a particular device upon receipt of a request to access the particular device. The method provides a generic API that may be commonly used by a plurality of applications on a computer or a plurality of computers in a network to access a plurality of peripheral devices. As such, the developer or user may port applications based on the generic API between different computers without making modifications to the applications.

Abstract: Network device drivers that interface with a communication transport are described. In one aspect, a networked computing system includes the network device driver and the communication transport. The network device driver converts abstract network device calls to network hardware device specific calls. The network hardware device specific calls are transported from the network device driver via the communication transport to a network hardware device.

Abstract: A system for installing an electronic device connected to a host device with consideration given to the host controller that enables the connection mechanism is provided. Information about the electronic device and the host controller is determined. An identifier that identifies the electronic device and the host controller is created based on the determined information. The identifier is used to search for a device driver for the electronic device that is specific to the host controller.

Abstract: A method for controlling a plurality of I/O devices being attached to a microprocessor by a special number and type of interfaces is provided. A generic configurable chip is connected to the I/O space of said microprocessor, said generic chip comprising a switch matrix being adapted to assign said special number and type of interfaces to each specific device when initializing said device.

Abstract: A memory interface circuit includes a plurality of data bus drivers and logic adapted to be operatively responsive to write driver mask information. If desired, the plurality of bus drivers and the logic may be implemented in separate integrated circuits. The plurality of bus drivers are adapted to be responsive to a write operation. The logic is also adapted to disable any one of the plurality of data bus drivers based on the write driver mask information during the write operation.

Abstract: The deployment of multiple embedded operating system components provides a designer with flexibility when customizing an embedded operating system for a target computing device. The embedded operating system components provide extra features to expand the functionality of the target computing device. The ease with which the designer may select various embedded operating system components to deploy from an originating computing device to the target computing device simplifies the design process. Configuration data of a core embedded operating system and configuration data of the deployed embedded operating system components are merged and any conflicts between configuration data are automatically resolved without rebooting the target computing device.

Abstract: A standardized 802.11 hardware control interface may be provided such that a driver may communicate with any one or more of a variety of network adapters.

Abstract: An information processing device communicable with an external device has a device driver installed therein to control the external device, an application installed therein, and a controller executing the device driver and the application in parallel. The device driver, when executed, causes the controller to acquire from the external device a status code corresponding to a status of the external device, show on a display device a display representing the status of the external device, based on the status code, determine whether the application is executable, execute the application when determining that the application is executable, and transmit the acquired status code to the application in execution. The application, when executed, causes the controller to receive the status code from the transmitter, and show on the display device guidance information containing more detailed information than the display based on the status code.

Abstract: A device controller that improves transfer speed when the total data amount to be transferred exceeds a predetermined amount, without requiring a special configuration in the device. The device controller includes a cache memory that caches data received from an application software or device driver and data received from a target device, and a control unit that transfers the data cached in the cache memory to the target device and the application software or device driver. The control unit receives a read or write request from upstream and caches the transfer data in the cache memory. During writing, the data received from upstream is cached, and once a certain amount of data has been collected, it is sent downstream. During reading, a certain amount of data is collectively read out from downstream and sent upstream.

Abstract: A system and method for emulating SCSI reservations using network file access protocols is provided. The system and method enable applications or operating systems on a networked computer designed to utilize SCSI reservations on only locally attached storage to also access networked data storage. The emulation occurs transparently to higher levels of operating systems or applications so that the applications or operating systems which are designed to only access locally attached storage may be enabled to access networked storage.

Abstract: A solution for handling Quality of Service (QOS) application compatibility in extended computer systems via a class system. The invention utilizes a framework based on definition of classes for performance categorization and management of application compatibility and user experience.

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention is directed to providing robust file system information for non-native devices. In operation, a file system includes both a file storage area for providing access to the contents of files, and a metadata store. The metadata store stores metadata associated with each file or device. When a device is connected to the file system, metadata for that device, and its items, is generated and stored in the metadata store. The metadata persists within the metadata store when the device is disconnected from, or no longer available to, the file system.

Abstract: Various aspects are disclosed for building a device driver stack in a virtual machine partition that does not physically control the device represented by the stack. In an embodiment, a secondary interface and driver for an I/O device may be instantiated. Information from an I/O virtualization layer describing the devices that the associated driver may control may be requested. A multi-path redirection layer may provide a handle to an existing stack that includes a driver for the I/O device. This existing stack may then be used to communicate with the device and allow the creation of a new stack including an object representing the device and a new driver for the device. The multi-path redirection layer may then open a handle to the new stack and inform the device virtualization layer, which may then ask the existing device interface to relinquish control of the device to the newly created interface.

Abstract: According to the present invention, is allowed to store, in a hard disk drive, only a driver and an application which are necessary for a peripheral device connected a personal computer, the area in use of the hard disk drive is reduced.

Abstract: A low latency peripheral device sharing system has a host computer with an operating system, a kernel memory buffer, applications, device specific drivers, and a peripheral server driver. The server driver intercepts function calls invoking the local serial ports, and passes standard serial data from the application to a local area network. A device server on the local area network reads the data using a hybrid read block (semi-blocking read), and writes the data to the FIFO registers of the serial device and the remaining data to a queue for the serial device. Finally, the device server times the serial data and returns an intercharacter interval timer flag to the host computer to terminate a read operation.

Abstract: Disclosed is a driver managing method using a driver managing apparatus for managing a driver corresponding to an output device connected through a network. The driver managing apparatus monitors change in a network environment including the presence or absence of a connection to the network and detects the output device connected to the network when the connection to the network has been confirmed, and installs the driver corresponding to the detected output device.

Abstract: A channel adaptor is provided which can be shared by a plurality of operating systems (OS's) running in a data processing system, by generating an address translation table without changing input/output process control data. A plurality of OS's execute an input/output process for the channel adaptor by using input/output process control data having different identifiers, without sharing the input/output process control data for the channel adaptor by different OS's. The data processing system generates one virtual address translation table from a plurality of address translation tables generated by OS's, and the channel adaptor processes the input/output control data of OS's by using the virtual address translation table.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for helping maintain isochronous communications with peripheral devices (308), such as USB devices, over a network (302). Some methods for facilitating isochronous IN communication include noting (1906) passage of a predetermined interval without communication (310) from the peripheral device driver (402), and then creating (1908) a dummy communication (312) and sending (1910) it over the network toward the peripheral device to maintain isochronous communication toward the peripheral device. Some methods for facilitating isochronous OUT communication include noting (2006) passage of a predetermined interval without receipt, over the network, of a responsive communication (310) from the peripheral device in response to a first communication, and then creating (2008) a dummy communication (312) and sending (2010) it toward the peripheral device driver to maintain isochronous communication transmissions toward the peripheral device driver.

Abstract: A computer system uses simplified device drivers for operating hardware devices. A simplified device driver for a hardware device of a given device type, such as a flatbed scanner, works with a system-supplied common driver for that given device type. The common driver and the simplified driver together function like a regular device driver. The simplified device driver implements a small number of entry point functions corresponding to a pre-selected set of operation commands “generic” to hardware devices of that given device type. When an application makes a request for an operation by the device, the request is passed through a device driver interface (DDI) to the common driver. The common driver then calls the entry point functions in the simplified device driver to carry out the requested operation.

Abstract: An electronic system comprises a memory, a parser, and a device driver. A plurality of applications and a document are stored in a user space of the memory, the document storing configuration parameters. The parser module parses the document to retrieve the parameters in response to invocation from at least one application. The device driver creates data structure for the parameters in the kernel space of the memory, thus to facilitate a plurality of programs to execute different functions of the system by commonly utilizing the parameters through the device driver.

Abstract: The present invention provides a communication system comprising a Master unit (1) and at least one Client unit (3), means to automatically establish a wireless bi-directional connection between said Client unit and said Master unit when they are close together; and means to automatically configure a communication interface (5) between said Master unit and said Client unit after connection is established. The invention thus enables systems with different protocols to find and communicate via said configured communication interface (5).

Abstract: When a peripheral device is connected to a host apparatus for the first time, an easy and secure installation of the driver of the peripheral device into the host apparatus is made possible. A printer 102, and a storage 103 storing a driver 104 for the printer 102 and an installer thereof, which function on a PC 200 are connected, as USB devices 111, 112, to a USB hub 110. An installation flag 105 records a value indicating an installation state of the driver 104. When the PC 200 is connected to the USB hub 110, if the value of the installation flag 105 indicates “non-installed”, the PC 200 is so controlled as to make access only to the storage 103. If the value of the installation flag 105 indicates “already installed”, the PC 200 is so controlled as to make access to the storage 103 and the printer 102.

Abstract: A driver condition estimation apparatus 5 estimates condition of a driver. The driver condition estimation apparatus 5 includes a driver condition estimating unit 50a for estimating the condition of the driver before the driver starts driving; and a control variable changing unit 50b for changing control variables of in-vehicle devices based on the condition of the driver estimated by the driver condition estimating unit 50a.

Abstract: Methods for enabling software from a storage-capable device including the steps of: loading, by a host system operationally connected to the storage-capable device, software from an authenticatable storage area residing in the storage-capable device; validating the software; and installing the validated software, wherein the validated software provides an interface between the host system and the storage-capable device. In some embodiments, the software is enabling software, the method further including the step of: loading, by the host system, device-functionality software from the authenticatable storage area. In some embodiments, the method further includes the steps of: validating the device-functionality software; and enabling the validated device-functionality software.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed to provide I/O handling in generic USB drivers. More particularly, a generic USB device driver architecture is described which enables development through a user-mode USB library that accesses a generic kernel-mode driver. The architecture may be utilized to provide efficient development for I/O handling. In a described implementation, a method includes defining a data structure utilized to access a plugged-in device. A pipe policy of the data structure is defined and utilizing to access the plugged-in device through a plurality of routines provided by a generic user-mode library (e.g., a dynamic link library (DLL)). The generic user-mode library is communicatively coupled to a kernel-mode generic device driver. In another described implementation, a separate generic device driver is loaded for each plugged-in device or for each functionality supported by the device.

Abstract: A method for installing peripheral software drivers including storing a first identifier for a peripheral device meant for compatible operation with an information handling system (IHS) in the non-volatile memory of the basic input/output system (BIOS) of the IHS, matching the peripheral device represented by the first identifier with compatible driver releases represented by a second identifier, sorting the compatible driver releases by priority and installing a highest priority driver release on the IHS.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method system and application for replacing device drivers on an operating system associated with a computing platform. According to some embodiments of the present invention, an operating system may be configured to use a set of device drivers corresponding to the hardware installed on the computing platform. In the event of a change of hardware, the installed device drivers need to be adapted to the new devices.

Abstract: A platform for running embedded software using an inexpensive standard personal computer is disclosed. A particular embodiment includes a compiler assist component and a runtime component. The compiler assist component operates in conjunction with a standard personal computer compiler to compile an embedded system application to run on a conventional personal computer. The runtime component executes on the personal computer and operates in conjunction with the standard operating system drivers to allow an emulated system to communicate with real hardware connected to the personal computer or to virtual hardware that is simulated on the personal computer.

Abstract: An exemplary computerized method is disclosed, comprising booting a destination computer in a pre-boot mode after a disk image comprising a first operating system is downloaded to the destination computer, initiating an identification module in the pre-boot mode to identify a device of the destination computer, receiving a device identifier of the device of the destination computer, identifying, using the device identifier, a driver compatible with the device, and downloading the driver to the destination computer before the destination computer is booted into the first operating system of the disk image for the first time. The method may also comprise receiving a hardware-abstraction-layer identifier of a hardware-abstraction layer of the destination computer, identifying a hardware-abstraction-layer file compatible with the hardware-abstraction layer of the destination computer, and downloading the hardware-abstraction-layer file to the destination computer.

Abstract: One of the printer drivers is selected from multiple printer drivers stored in a recording medium by referring to regional information set in the computer in advance and in accordance with the referred regional information. The selected printer driver is to be installed in the computer. It is also possible to select setup information that includes a screen display language, a default printing paper size, and a measurement unit system, instead of selecting a printer driver itself, and have the setup information to be installed in the computer.