Method and system for providing device support for a plurality of operating systems

摘要

The present invention facilitates construction of SCSI device support code so that it can be ported to multiple operating system environments. The present invention also allows support for a device to be coded only once, and yet be supported on multiple operating system environments. Accordingly, a method and system for supporting a plurality of devices utilized with a data processing system is disclosed. This method and system allows for a plurality of devices to be utilized on a plurality of operating system platforms. The method and system comprises receiving a request from a user for a particular device, formatting the request into at least one common packet and then providing the at least one common packet to each of the plurality of operating system platforms. In so doing, any of the plurality of operating system platforms can utilize the at least one common packet to provide a device driver for the particular device. In a system in accordance with the present invention, device support code can be broken into an architected structure that allows it to execute on multiple operating system platforms and control SCSI tape, optical and medium changer devices. The code exists in a single source tree structure and can be built for execution on any of several operating system platforms by appropriate automated build procedures. <IMAGE>