device driver
COMPUTER PROGRAM THAT OPERATES OR CONTROLS A PARTICULAR TYPE OF DEVICE
Device Driver; Device drivers; Software driver; 16-bit driver; 32-bit driver; Hardware drivers; Hardware driver; Kernel driver; Linux device driver; Virtual device drivers; Device Driver Interface; Computer driver; Driver software; Generic USB driver; BYOVD; Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver
<
operating system>
Software to control a hardware component
or
peripheral device of a computer such as a {magnetic
disk},
magnetic tape or printer.
A device
driver is responsible for accessing the hardware
registers of the device and often includes an {interrupt
handler} to service interrupts generated by the device.
Device drivers often form part of the lowest level of the
operating system kernel, with which they are linked when
the kernel is built. Some more recent systems have loadable
device drivers which can be installed from files after the
operating system is running.
(1994-10-27)