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:
Oct. 22, 1996
Filed:
May. 05, 1995
Matthew R Nelson, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Thomas E Saulpaugh, San Jose, CA (US);
Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
Each device is represented by a node in a hierarchical tree, referred to herein as an interrupt source tree (IST). The root and intermediate nodes of the IST represent dispatching or determining points; this removes the need for the device drivers to contain dispatching code; the drivers now only need to contain interrupt handling code specific to the device itself. At these nodes code is executed to determine which branch to take down the IST. The bottom nodes are the leaf nodes; the leaf nodes identify the device interrupt handler. By moving the determination steps performed by the different device drivers to the nodes of the IST, the device drivers are modular and portable. Furthermore, changes to the computer system configuration, which in the prior art would require modification of all device drivers, can be adapted to by modification of the IST.