Re: Driver to drive?

From: Ian Stirling (root_at_mauve.demon.co.uk)
Date: 10/01/04 

Date: 01 Oct 2004 13:07:29 GMT

Chaos Master <spammers.***@spam.com.invalid> wrote:
> boki puts out:
>> Dear All,
>> Why not burn burn device driver into device directly, when
>> device install to Windows/Linux/OS2..., system could get driver from
>> device directly?
>> ( I mean USB devices)
>
> And how would you go to update the driver, specially with operating systems
> like Linux that often get kernel updates, or with various Windows versions?

There are a couple of ways this could have actually worked.

Basically, you have a high-level language describing the device and
its interface, that can be run on any platform.

Combine this with stricter licensing requirements (you can't put the USB
logo on a webcam if it doesn't conform to the webcam standard and work
in a standard defined way (though the maker is free to add extras)), and
it could have worked quite well.

For fixed hardware enviroments, "firmware on the device" is the standard
way to go.
Consider 99% of PCI cards.
Tbey are programmed with x86 machine language in the BIOS, and the
BIOS won't work in a system that doesn't at least emulate it.

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