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Q: origin of the computer term "driver" ( No Answer,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: origin of the computer term "driver"
Category: Computers > Hardware
Asked by: w0rm-ga
List Price: $20.00
Posted: 26 Jul 2005 15:31 PDT
Expires: 27 Jul 2005 13:02 PDT
Question ID: 548246
A friend and I have been arguing about this for the past year, no joke...
 
It is clear to me that device drivers are translators between hardware
and software. In other words, I understand what device drivers are but
I am trying to understand what they are NOT. Many sites define drivers
by specifically saying that they "drive". On the other hand, many
sites do not specifically say that they drive, but they also do not
say that they "don't drive."

Hopefully I am making myself clear... My questions are:
Do device drivers technically "drive" anything at all? If not, then
why are they called "drivers" and where did this term originate from?
 
Any resources that I may reference with your answer would be greatly appreciated.

Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 26 Jul 2005 16:04 PDT
Hi w0rm,

Please take a look at the following and let me know if this suffices
as an answer to your question:


"Device drivers ?drive? devices in the sense that they tell
controllers what to do."

http://www.cs.usfca.edu/benson/cs326/16-io-notes.pdf

========================================

"Device drivers literally drive everything you're interested
in--disks, monitors, keyboards, modems--everything outside the
computer chip and memory."

http://www.bookpool.com/sm/0596005903

========================================

"A device driver, often called a driver for short, is a computer
program that enables another program (typically, an operating system)
to interact with a hardware device. Think of a driver as a manual that
gives the operating system (e.g., Windows, Linux) instructions on how
to use a particular piece of hardware.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Device-driver

========================================

"The device driver drives the devices by allocating an instance of a
USB host controller device driver to each device."

http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2005-07/msg00125.html


Best regards,
Rainbow

Clarification of Question by w0rm-ga on 26 Jul 2005 17:48 PDT
Well, I have already found plenty of sources that say drivers "drive".
I was hoping for a more definitive answer although your links are
good. The most credible one I've personally found is from IBM:

"Drivers are programs that contain sets of instructions that tell the
operating system how best to operate or 'drive' a certain piece of
hardware."
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-60033

Can you give me any information about who invented the first driver
and/or text stating why they decided to call drivers, drivers? I think
that would suffice.

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 27 Jul 2005 08:05 PDT
Hello w0rm-ga,

I've been looking into the history of this term, and it appears to
make an appearance in computer magazines in the early 1980's, often
without much in the way of definition or explanation.

The earliest use I found was in a US patent in 1978.  Would a link to
that document meet your needs?  Mind you, there's no discussion of the
origins of the term...instead, it's pretty much left to the context to
make clear what is meant.

Let me know your thoughts on this.


pafalafa-ga
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