- Image by Igal Koshevoy via Flickr
Most of the people are aware that the visible physical parts of the computer are the hardware of the computer, which require installation. Most of the hardwares, like the keyboard, Bluetooth, printer, and others are in need of device drivers in order to be installed in the computer. On the other hand, the computer bits that are stored on any storage media are called software. But alas, most of the people are unaware of the meaning of the term “driver.”
During the earlier times, around in the year of 1981, the world suffered through a severe recession. The business of main frame of IBM was slowing down which was resulting as a big loss of money of the company. Before that, they were laughing and mocking at the introduction of the microcomputers that came in the market, which were mostly used for playing computer games. Unfortunate for the IBM, the microcomputers, which looked like “toys” were a big hit. IBM had to join too. As they were not having sufficient time in order to design and create a complete computer which could compete with the toys in the market, they decided to create “open system”.
They did their best to utilize the most commonly accessible electronic components. They published each and every detail of the design, which includes the code even. They also provided the slots of plug in which could be used for adding components to the computer.
Extra components became a success then, and people began providing components for the personal computer of IBM. They were providing video cards, cards of input-output port, cards of memory expansion, cards of game port, cards of interface of hard disk, and so on. Now the question arises, how can the devices be compatible with the Operating System of the personal computer? The simple answer is the Device Drivers.
By using a variety of control signals, an external hardware device is built with a variety of electronic components, with the standard interface of the software to the computer’s operation system. The specification of the interface is needed to be followed by the interface of the device driver to the computer’s operating system.
A device driver is actually a type of software which can translate the control signal of the hardware that is expected by the operating system and the signals from the computer’s operating system to the control signals of the hardware.
When you turn the computer on, it would automatically look for the files with extension in the directory of system and load the files in its memory. The hardware is configures by these files of the device drivers.
Saksham is working for GO-Gulf.com, a web design Dubai Company that provides web design solution in Kuwait, Sharjah and Middle East.
