OS standardizing the hardware driver
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OS standardizing the hardware driver
I wish there will an OS that provide a new universal standard to access connected hardware such as monitor, keyboard, mouse, USB, printer or else and the manufacture will build their product around it. So, every new hardware introduce to the market can be connected to this OS without require any version of driver or at least additional option can be accessed from the web browser into the hardware firmware ROM.
So when the OS or the hardware updated, it just as seamless as the plug and play. No fussy driver installation or searching a missing driver for old hardware. Basically, the firmware in the hardware ROM interfacing with the OS and communicating with the same language and provide manufacture info or additional options if available. You could call it Driver in the ROM if your want as long as to access those driver is using the same code from any OS using the same communicating standard to the peripherals.
Anything is possible...
So when the OS or the hardware updated, it just as seamless as the plug and play. No fussy driver installation or searching a missing driver for old hardware. Basically, the firmware in the hardware ROM interfacing with the OS and communicating with the same language and provide manufacture info or additional options if available. You could call it Driver in the ROM if your want as long as to access those driver is using the same code from any OS using the same communicating standard to the peripherals.
Anything is possible...
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Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
You have some ideas there. One easy way would be cloud access. That would require the web. The machine sends out its vendor codes and the OS could seamlessly install them. The downside other than needing the web would be network support. So cloud alone would not be good if you have to have the cloud to get on the cloud. Being stranded via catch-22 is never good.
Installing basic driver support in ROM could be good. At the least, put the network stuff there.
Making things more PnP is part of Windows 7, where things that required reboots before can be done more on the fly.
The whole standards thing is a conundrum. The idea behind drivers is to be able to use different standards and even devices that weren't invented yet.
I wonder. If what the drivers did could somehow be described in a meta-language sort of way, and the OS could somehow compile that. Like what if there was a meta language and every device had a way to query for that. It would explain to the OS in technical terms the resources it needed, what it did, its capabilities, and so on. Then if the OS could take that and make its own drivers, just imagine the compatibility.
This could build on the wisdom gained from a different project. The idea is to take drivers intended for something else, and the code isolates the working portion from the OS portion and then recompiles the drivers in an automated way to work with another OS. So lets say something only had 2K drivers. That code could take those drivers and convert them to XP or higher drivers (or Linux, or whatever else).
Installing basic driver support in ROM could be good. At the least, put the network stuff there.
Making things more PnP is part of Windows 7, where things that required reboots before can be done more on the fly.
The whole standards thing is a conundrum. The idea behind drivers is to be able to use different standards and even devices that weren't invented yet.
I wonder. If what the drivers did could somehow be described in a meta-language sort of way, and the OS could somehow compile that. Like what if there was a meta language and every device had a way to query for that. It would explain to the OS in technical terms the resources it needed, what it did, its capabilities, and so on. Then if the OS could take that and make its own drivers, just imagine the compatibility.
This could build on the wisdom gained from a different project. The idea is to take drivers intended for something else, and the code isolates the working portion from the OS portion and then recompiles the drivers in an automated way to work with another OS. So lets say something only had 2K drivers. That code could take those drivers and convert them to XP or higher drivers (or Linux, or whatever else).
Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
Such standards already exist: PCI bus, VESA-compliant GPU, USB storage devices, SATA controllers...
You couldn't even install windows or linux or <put your favorite OS here> on your computer without such standards. The current situation is far from being perfect (think about (wireless) network controllers), but it isn't so bad if you consider how complex a computer is and you still can install some (more or less) universal software on it.
You couldn't even install windows or linux or <put your favorite OS here> on your computer without such standards. The current situation is far from being perfect (think about (wireless) network controllers), but it isn't so bad if you consider how complex a computer is and you still can install some (more or less) universal software on it.
Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
Two attempts have been made to do what you are proposing, EFI and hypervisors (of which there are three or four, and which are unlikely to ever unify). Neither have worked, both for technical and political reasons. The biggest impediment to what you are asking for is legacy. The need to support older hardware that was designed and built before some mythical universal standard was passed. So unless you are prepared to accept the loss of functionality or pay the added costs of implementing support for old devices, there's really no chance of any universal standard emerging for hardware drivers.
Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
so ros won't support older hardware?
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- Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:11 am
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Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
Not if there aren't drivers for it. I am not sure what level of driver freedom it has, like if it can use 2K and XP drivers. For things like hard drive access and video, we have UNI-ATA for that, and a certain amount of VESA compatibility. So Reactos might do more for older hardware than Windows.Dave3434 wrote:so ros won't support older hardware?
Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
the oldest piece of hardware i have is a pentium 2, so it should work.
Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
I prefer the OS standardizing the drivers over the specific group of device driver developers. Then the other OS developer could use the same techniques and share their improvement back to the OS maker community. Thing will get interesting when let say the OS able to access the GPU and take the advantages of the hardware acceleration using OpenGL or any 3D capable Graphics Libraries.
I saw one application (DOS based) called MPXPLAY if I'm not mistaken has access various old and new Audio hardware even one that connected via PCI-e. If the same can be done on any OS with such a way, it can bring to life some old devices which is now laying around and collecting dust.
I saw one application (DOS based) called MPXPLAY if I'm not mistaken has access various old and new Audio hardware even one that connected via PCI-e. If the same can be done on any OS with such a way, it can bring to life some old devices which is now laying around and collecting dust.
Re: OS standardizing the hardware driver
check what found http://youtu.be/ENZBVsin1dc
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