Emulating hardware having selected storage characteristics

An invention comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for emulating hardware within a computer configuration, the method including,

• (a) a step for representing to an operating system of the computer configuration the presence of the hardware having the selected storage capacity, selected storage characteristics, and addresses for reading data therefrom and writing data thereto,
• (b) a step for writing data to an address of the hardware by either, (i) writing the data to an address of a data store with which the hardware address is associated, or (ii) writing the data to an address of the data store with which no hardware address is associated, and associating the hardware address with that data store address, and
• (c) a step for reading data from a hardware address by either, (i) reading the data from a data store address with which the hardware address has been associated in accordance with said writing step, or (ii) returning data that has not been written to the hardware in accordance with said writing step.

An invention comprising a computer configuration including computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for emulating hardware within a computer configuration, the method including,

• (a) a step for representing to an operating system of the computer configuration the presence of the hardware having the selected storage capacity, selected storage characteristics, and addresses for reading data therefrom and writing data thereto,
• (b) a step for writing data to an address of the hardware by either, (i) writing the data to an address of a data store with which the hardware address is associated, or (ii) writing the data to an address of the data store with which no hardware address is associated, and associating the hardware address with that data store address, and
• (c) a step for reading data from a hardware address by either, (i) reading the data from a data store address with which the hardware address has been associated in accordance with said writing step, or (ii) returning data that has not been written to the hardware in accordance with said writing step.

An invention comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for emulating hardware within a computer configuration, the computer-executable instructions including,

• (a) means for representing to an operating system of the computer configuration the presence of the hardware having a selected storage capacity, selected storage characteristics, and addresses for reading data therefrom and writing data thereto,
• (b) means for writing data to an address of the hardware by either, (i) writing the data to an address of a data store with which the hardware address is associated, or (ii) writing the data to an address of the data store with which no hardware address is associated, and associating the hardware address with that data store address, and
• (c) means for reading data from a hardware address by either, (i) reading the data from a data store address with which the hardware address has been associated in accordance with said writing step, or (ii) returning data that has not been written to the hardware in accordance with said writing step.

An invention comprising computer configuration in which hardware within the computer configuration is emulated, the computer configuration including,

• (a) means for representing to an operating system of the computer configuration the presence of the hardware having a selected storage capacity, selected storage characteristics, and addresses for reading data therefrom and writing data thereto,
• (b) means for writing data to an address of the hardware by either, (i) writing the data to an address of a data store with which the hardware address is associated, or (ii) writing the data to an address of the data store with which no hardware address is associated, and associating the hardware address with that data store address, and
• (c) means for reading data from a hardware address by either, (i) reading the data from a data store address with which the hardware address has been associated in accordance with said writing step, or (ii) returning data that has not been written to the hardware in accordance with said writing step.