Device Drivers

A program that provides a software interface to a particular hardware device. This enables the OS to access hardware functions without needing to know the details of the hardware being used.

Drivers are hardware dependent and operating system specific. A driver communicates with the device to which the hardware connects. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device. Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program.



Examples of Device Drivers:



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