Method and apparatus for managing related drivers associated with a virtual bus driver

• US 20050240942A1
• Filed: 04/23/2004
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Hampton, Kathryn A., Teague, Gaines C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,506 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/321
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments relate to an apparatus and method for managing related drivers associated with a bus driver. In one embodiment, the apparatus may comprise a physical device object table adapted to contain a plurality of entries, a child device associated with each of the plurality of entries, each of the child devices configured to have a name associated therewith, the name configured to provide information about the child device, and a virtual bus driver configured to interface between the child devices and an adapter.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing related drivers associated with a virtual bus driver, comprising:

a physical device object table configured to contain a plurality of entries;

a child device associated with each of the plurality of entries, each of the child devices configured to have a name associated therewith, the name configured to provide information about the child device; and

a virtual bus driver configured to interface between the child devices and an adapter.

2. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, comprising a management module associated with the adapter that associates each name with one of the child devices.

3. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the virtual bus driver is configured to create the name associated with each of the child devices.

4. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the adapter is associated with a bus slot.

5. The apparatus set forth in claim 4, wherein the bus slot is one of a plurality of bus slots on a peripheral component interconnect (“

PCI”

) bus.

6. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the child devices is associated with at least one of a storage application and a network application.

7. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the child devices is associated with an iWARP driver, a network device interface specification driver, and a iSCSI driver.

8. A system, comprising:

a processor

a memory configured to store an operating system and a physical device object table for access by the processor;

a bus having a plurality of bus slots coupled to the processor;

at least one driver associated with one of the plurality of bus slots; and

a plurality of child devices associated with the at least one driver, wherein each of the plurality of child devices is associated with an object name stored in the physical device object table.

9. The system set forth in claim 8, comprising plug and play logic operable to create each object name for the plurality of child devices, and configured to report each object name to the operating system.

10. The system set forth in claim 8, wherein the physical device object table is operable to associate a class identifier and address information with each object name.

11. The system set forth in claim 10, comprising an application stored in the memory for use by the processor, the application configured to utilize the class identifier associated with the object name of at least one of the plurality of child devices to identify a set of the plurality of child devices that is within a specific class.

12. The system set forth in claim 11, wherein the application is configured to utilize the set of the plurality of child devices to communicate via an internet protocol address.

13. The system set forth in claim 11, wherein the application comprises a windows sockets direct (“

WSD”

) application.

14. The system set forth in claim 8, comprising an adapter of a peripheral device coupled to one of the bus slots and configured to communicate with the operating system through one of the plurality of child devices.

15. The system set forth in claim 14, wherein the peripheral device is a tape drive or another computer system.

16. A method for managing related drivers associated with a virtual bus driver comprising:

creating an object name for each of a plurality of child devices;

providing at least one object name to a first entity;

matching the at least one object name to an object name of one of the first entity and a second entity; and

performing further processing based on the matching of at least one object name.

17. The method set forth in claim 16, comprising reporting the object name for each of a plurality of child devices to an operating system.

18. The method set forth in claim 17, comprising creating a physical device object table by the operating system, wherein one of a plurality of entries in the physical device object table is associated with the at least one object name.

19. The method set forth in claim 16, comprising accessing an object name of a virtual bus driver associated with the child device and appending the class type of the child device to the object name of the virtual bus driver.

20. The method set forth in claim 16, comprising creating the object name for each of the plurality of child devices using a virtual bus driver.

21. An apparatus for managing related drivers associated with a bus drive comprising:

a physical device object table adapted to contain a plurality of entries;

a child device object associated with each of the plurality of entries, each of the child device objects configured to have an object name that provides information about the child device object; and

a bus driver configured to interface between each child device object and an adapter coupled to one of a plurality of bus slots associated with a bus bridge that manages a bus.

22. The apparatus set forth in claim 21, comprising a management module associated with the bus and configured to provide the object name for each of the plurality of entries.

23. The apparatus set forth in claim 21, wherein the object name includes a class identifier of the child device object appended to an object name of the bus driver.

24. The apparatus set forth in claim 21, wherein the bus driver is operable to create the object name for each of the plurality of child device objects.