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:
Sep. 09, 2014
Filed:
Dec. 22, 2011
James S. Lin, San Jose, CA (US);
James S. Lin, San Jose, CA (US);
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
An embodiment enables an operating system to load multiple device drivers for a single device without interfering in the operations of the device. Multiple device drivers may be needed in order to communicate with the device. In one embodiment, a device, such as disk drive, is configured to present its identification information in multiple forms that are functionally analogous. The disk drive is configured to provide its serial number in different forms that convert to a same identification. For example, the disk drive may provide its serial number using different cases, such as uppercase or lowercase text. The difference in is transparent to software applications, and thus, does not affect the operations of the device. However, the different forms of the serial number are reported to the operating system as different numbers, and thus, enable the operating system to load different device drivers for the same device.