The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 12, 1993
Filed:
Jun. 07, 1990
Todd M Rimmer, Frazer, PA (US);
William P Jordan, Ephrata, PA (US);
Unisys Corporation, Plymouth Meeting, PA (US);
Abstract
A common peripheral device interface module is disclosed for use with Unix (Unix is a trademark of AT&T) operating system which is flexible enough to support many types of disk or tape device drivers. A common disk module (CDM) is included. The CDM contains high level disk operation commands which may be used for common reference to each disk driver on the system. Routines within the CDM are accessed by the Unix system call interface through a series of operating system entry points. Additional routines are included with the pre-existing Unix operating system Disk I/O Subsystem to improve interfacing between this subsystem and the CDM. A common tape module (CTM) is used to perform high level tape operation routines. The Unix system call interface communicates with the CTM through a group of operating system entry points. Because of the large number of possible root disk device drives, the root disk device driver can be dynamically selected for the Unix operating system. Each controller which is resident within the system checks in with the operating system. The controller which checks in first with the operating system is used for booting up the system. Each controller which checks in is matched with an appropriate device driver. The matched device drivers are then used for disk I/O functions.