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. 28, 1997
Filed:
Aug. 03, 1994
Terence R Spies, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method for storing device drivers in the adapter region of a computer's address space includes the step of providing a plurality of headers and associating each header with a device driver to be loaded and initialized. Each header includes instructions for loading and initializing its associated device driver. Further, each header includes information for identifying the address next following its device driver. The method further includes the step of storing the plurality of device drivers and their corresponding headers in an address space having addresses that are sequential. Further, each header is stored in an address space having addresses that are sequential with the addresses of the address space occupied by its corresponding device driver. A method is also disclosed for loading the plurality of device drivers stored in the manner discussed above. The method for loading comprises the step of locating a header and executing the instructions for loading and initializing its corresponding device driver. Thereafter, the driver size identifier is used to identify the location of the header next following the device driver just loaded.