Context virtualizing device driver architecture

摘要

A device driver architecture that couples an operating system to a computer interface of a controller device that includes a plurality of functional sub-elements. The device driver includes a plurality of operating system interface objects each presenting an operating system interface (OSI) to the operating system, a plurality of computer interface objects each providing for the generation of programming values to be applied to the computer interface to establish the operating mode of a respective predetermined subelement of the controller device, and a device driver library of processing routines callable by each of the plurality of operating system interface objects to process data and generate calls to the plurality of computer interface objects in predetermined combinations. The device driver library enables the selection of an execution contexts within which to define the generation and application of the programming values to the computer interface. The state of the hardware interface is virtualized and maintained in discrete contexts, allowing for application specific, dynamic alteration of the state of the hardware interface through essentially context switching private to the device driver in response to selected operating system events.