Understanding devices and device drivers (1.1)
Knowing that computer hardware is nothing more than a collection of devices and that the operating system is just a collection of programmed instructions, it is very intriguing to see the interaction between these two computer components. This raises the question, How does the operating system recognize the devices that make up the physical part of a computer?
Computer devices and device drivers
In general, if we agree that the computer system is comprised of a computer case, monitor, keyboard, and mouse, as shown in Figure 3.1, then computer devices are organized into internal, external, peripheral, and network devices:
- An internal device is any device that is located in the computer's case. Examples of a computer's internal devices are the power supply, motherboard and accompanying components, hard drives, extension cards, and other internal hardware components that constitute the core computer architecture (that is everything inside a computer...
