Mechanism by which devices on unforeseen platform variants may be supported without re-release of core platform kernel software
First Claim
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1. A computer implemented method for implementing an interface to a device driver comprising:
- generating a request from said device driver associated with a first platform;
providing said request to a bus manager interface, said bus manager interface written for a second platform and where said bus manager interface cannot handle said request; and
modifying said bus manager interface using a platform service agent (PSA) so that said bus manager interface can handle said request.
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Abstract
The present invention provides a means to support new and modified platforms without the need to modify the system software kernel. The invention uses an approach referred to as Platform Service Agents (PSAs). The PSA works with the bus manager of the system software for that platform variant and modifies the system resources as needed. The PSA isolates specifics of the platform, so that the bus manager need not be modified. Because the PSAs themselves are outside of the kernel, are downloadable, and easily created for platform variants, new platforms can be supported without modification or re-release of the system software kernel.
77 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method for implementing an interface to a device driver comprising:
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generating a request from said device driver associated with a first platform;
providing said request to a bus manager interface, said bus manager interface written for a second platform and where said bus manager interface cannot handle said request; and
modifying said bus manager interface using a platform service agent (PSA) so that said bus manager interface can handle said request. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 19, 20)
loading said device driver; and
determining an initial set of memory descriptors.
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20. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein said computer implemented method further comprises:
determining whether there is a PSA associated with said device driver.
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7. An apparatus for implementing an interface to a device driver comprising:
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a device driver associated with a first platform;
a bus manager interface called by said device driver, said bus manager interface written for a second platform and where said bus manager interface cannot handle a request generated by said device driver; and
a platform service agent (PSA) for modifying said bus manager interface so that said bus manager interface can handle said request. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer readable medium including computer program code for implementing an interface to a device driver, said computer readable medium comprising:
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computer program code for generating a request from said device driver associated with a first platform;
computer program code for providing said request to a bus manager interface, said bus manager interface written for a second platform and where said bus manager interface cannot handle said request; and
computer program code for modifying said bus manager interface using a platform service agent (PSA) so that said bus manager interface can handle said request. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification