Virtual device driver
AssigneeSun Microsystems, Inc.
InventorAlan T. Ruberg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pseudo device driver is provided for use by an operation system in a virtual desktop computing environment. The driver has two ports, a master port that is opened by the driver application and a slave port accessed by a program. The two ports provide the functionality necessary for supporting the remote device on the terminal. When a program accesses a device coupled to the terminal, the program opens the pseudo device driver's slave port and proceeds as if the device were coupled to a local bus.
Claims17
An apparatus for providing one or more applications with access to one or more devices, comprising:
- a server comprising an application and a driver service, said drive service comprising a plurality of device semantics;
- a pseudo device driver having a slave port and a master port, said pseudo device driver providing an interprocess conduit between said slave port and said master port, wherein said pseudo device driver is configured to perform conversion of device control commands received via said slave port into service protocol for transmission to said drive service;
- an Human Interface Device (HID) comprising a peripheral device, said plurality of device semantics comprising data defining an actual operation of said peripheral device and a data type;
- and
- an interconnect fabric;
- wherein said driver service of said server is coupled to said peripheral device of said HID via said interconnect fabric;
- wherein said slave port provides a first interface with said application;
- wherein said master port provides a second interface with said driver service;
- and
- wherein said driver service remotely controls said peripheral device from said server via said pseudo device driver.
A method for providing an application with access to a peripheral device, comprising:
- accessing an application on a server from a Human Interface Device (HID), wherein said HID does not contain any device semantic for controlling said peripheral device;
- receiving, via a slave port of a pseudo device driver, device commands from said application;
- interpreting said device commands;
- providing said interpreted commands in a service protocol to a driver service on said server via a master port of said pseudo device driver, wherein said driver service comprises a plurality of device semantics, said plurality of device semantics comprises data defining an actual operation of said peripheral device and a data type of said peripheral device, and said pseudo device driver is configured to perform conversion of service protocol from said driver service into responses to control commands for transmission to said slave port;
- and
- controlling said peripheral device on said HID remotely via said driver service on said server across a network;
- wherein said pseudo device driver provides an interprocess conduit from said application to said driver service.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.