driver
Computer program that acts as an intermediary between the operating system and a device such as a disk drive, video card, printer, or keyboard. The driver must contain a detailed knowledge of the device, including its set of specialized commands. The presence of a separate driver program frees the operating system from having to understand the details of every device; instead, the operating system issues general commands to the driver, which in turn translates them into specific instructions for the device, or vice versa.
driver
(1) A loudspeaker. Although the terms "driver" and "speaker" are used synonymously, the phrase "the speaker has four drivers" means that the speaker cabinet has four individual speakers inside.
(2) A hardware device (typically a transistor) that provides signals or electrical current to activate a transmission line or display screen pixel. See line driver.
(3) Also called a "device driver," it is a program routine that links the operating system to a peripheral device. Written by programmers who understand the peripheral hardware's command language and characteristics, the driver contains the precise machine language necessary to perform the functions requested by the application.
The Driver Is the Interface
When a new peripheral device is added to the computer, such as a display adapter, its driver must be installed in order to use it. The application calls the operating system, the operating system calls the driver, and the driver makes the device work (it "drives" the device). Routines that perform internal functions, such as memory managers and disk caches, are also drivers.
Drivers Can Drive You Crazy!
Often, the solution to a problem is to update a driver, because the version you have is buggy. Hardware vendors are always releasing newer versions. For example, everything you see on screen is the result of the display driver (video driver) drawing the screen according to the commands that the operating system issues to it. Such drivers are extremely complex and can be error prone.
There Used to Be More Drivers
In the "old" DOS days, in order to provide complete control over the printing of a document, every software application included one driver for each of the popular printers. With Windows and Mac, the printer driver is installed into the operating system, not into each application. All applications print through the OS, which commands the printer via the one driver for that printer. See filter driver and driver signing.
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| Windows Display Driver |
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| To display something on screen, a Windows application makes calls to the Graphics Device Interface (GDI). GDI converts the calls to driver functions, and the driver commands the display adapter. |
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| PC Drivers |
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| Every peripheral device requires a driver. The drivers provide the detailed instructions necessary to activate and control the device. |
driver
driver [′drī·vər]
| 1. | (operating system) | driver - device driver. | |
| 2. | (programming) | driver - The main loop of an event-processing program; the code that gets commands and dispatches them for execution. | |
| 3. | (tool) | driver - In the TeX world and the computerised typesetting world in general, a program that translates some device-independent or other common format to something a real device can actually understand. |
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