Method, apparatus and program storage device that provides a user mode device interface

• US 20070124365A1
• Filed: 11/30/2005
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Song, Cheng-Chung, Chen, Chiahong, Ramachandran, Radha
• Granted Patent: US 9,176,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse

Abstract

A method, apparatus and program storage device that provides a user mode device interface for enabling software reuse. The user mode device interface allows device interface requests to be sent and received, including commands and data structures, via socket communication. A device state machine on the client side is implemented in a set of shared functions that can be incorporated by all applications that want to communicate to a particular service provider. The service provider offers the software functions over a user mode device interface via socket communication. The device state machine on the service provider side is embedded in the socket server implementation. The interaction between the state machines on both client and server sides ensures a device interface request is properly handled.

Claims

1. A user mode device interface, comprising:

a user side object for generating requests for use of software functions running on an application running in privilege mode; and

a server side object for performing the request and forwarding a response based on the request to the user side object.

2. The user mode device interface of claim 1 further comprising a socket interface for coupling the server side object and the user side object and providing socket communication between the server side object and the user side object.

3. The user mode device interface of claim 1, wherein the user side object includes a user side device state machine, the user side device state machine comprises a set of shared functions capable of being incorporated by applications desiring to communicate with the application running in privilege mode.

4. The user mode device interface of claim 1, wherein the server side object includes a server side device state machine embedded in a socket server implementation to provide interaction between the server side device state machine and the user side device state machine.

5. The user mode device interface of claim 1, wherein the user side object and the server side object are configured to enable software functions running in privileged mode to be reused.

6. The user mode device interface of claim 1, wherein the user side object and the server side object are configured to provide a consistent interface to invoke functions in both privileged and user mode.

7. The user mode device interface of claim 1, wherein the user side object is configured to preserve the core of the software functions without any change regardless of whether they are running in privileged or user mode.

8. The user mode device interface of claim 1, wherein the user side object and server side object are configured to preserve the expectation by software functions to receive requests from a device interface.

9. A computing system, comprising:

a processor having a user mode and a protected kernel mode; and

a memory, coupled to the processor, the memory including program code, executing in the processor, for providing a user mode device interface, the user mode device interface processing a request for use of software functions running on an application running in privilege mode.

10. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the user device interface further comprises a user side object for generating requests for use of software functions running on an application running in privilege mode.

11. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the user device interface further comprises a server side object for performing the request and forwarding a response based on the request to the user side object.

12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the user device interface further comprises a user side object for generating requests for use of software functions running on an application running in privilege mode.

13. The computing system of claim 12, further comprising a socket interface for coupling the server side object and the user side object and providing socket communication between the server side object and the user side object.

14. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the user side object includes a user side device state machine, the user side device state machine comprises a set of shared functions capable of being incorporated by applications desiring to communicate with the application running in privilege mode.

15. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the server side object includes a server side device state machine embedded in a socket server implementation to provide interaction between the server side device state machine and the user side device state machine.

16. A program storage device, comprising:

program instructions executable by a processing device to perform operations for providing a user mode device interface for enabling software reuse, the operations comprising;

issuing from a user side a request to open a device with a proper device identifier on a server side; and

processing the request on the server side including performing a function identified by the request.

17. The program storage device of claim 16, wherein processing the request on the server side further comprises verifying whether the device identifier for the requested device is valid;

rejecting the request when the identifier is invalid and communicating acceptance of the request when the identifier is valid.

18. The program storage device of claim 16, wherein processing the request on the server side further comprises receiving a command from the user side when the identifier is valid.

19. The program storage device of claim 16, wherein processing the request on the server side further comprises responding with an indication of whether the performing the function was a success.

20. The program storage device of claim 19, further comprising forwarding to the user side output data in response to successful performance of the function.