Software architecture for controlling an apparatus with one or more hardware units

摘要

A software architecture is used to control an apparatus with one or more hardware units that each perform one or more corresponding functions. The software architecture includes a device group data structure for each hardware unit and one or more device data structures for each hardware unit function. In a preferred, but an example embodiment, one or more device set data structures are defined in the software architecture. Each device set data structure is associated with the device group and includes one or more device data structures. The data structures defined in the software architecture are used to control the apparatus functionality physically performed by the hardware units.