Initializing hardware components using parallel driver loading and serial access granting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10503518-B2
Application number	US-201715730607-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2017
Priority date	Oct 11, 2017
Publication date	Dec 10, 2019
Grant date	Dec 10, 2019

Abstract

Techniques are described herein that are capable of initializing hardware components by loading drivers in parallel and granting the drivers access to the hardware components serially. For instance, a controller may serve as an intermediary between the drivers and the hardware components to synchronize access of the drivers to the respective hardware components. The controller may include software and hardware. The software may program the hardware to grant the drivers access to the respective hardware components serially based at least in part on an event that is capable of being associated with one driver at a time. Accordingly, access of the drivers to the respective hardware components may be granted serially, even though the drivers have been loaded in parallel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a plurality of hardware components;
a memory storing an operating system;
one or more processors configured to execute the operating system,
the operating system configured to load a plurality of software drivers, which correspond to the plurality of respective hardware components, in parallel based at least in part on the plurality of hardware components being a same hardware component type; and

a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause access of the software drivers to the respective hardware components to be controlled by causing requests to be serially provided from the respective software drivers to the respective hardware components in response to the software drivers being loaded, the requests requesting initiation of communication with the respective hardware components.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operating system is further configured to create a designated event to be utilized by the software drivers to facilitate initialization of the respective hardware components, the designated event being useable by one of the software drivers at a time; and
wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the requests to be serially provided during respective periods of time during which the respective software drivers use the designated event.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the operating system is configured to remove a static load-time dependency associated with the software drivers to enable the software drivers to be loaded in parallel.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, generate second instructions to program circuitry to serially provide the requests to the respective hardware components based at least in part on the second instructions in response to receipt of the requests from the respective software drivers.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of second hardware components;
wherein the operating system is configured to load a plurality of second software drivers serially to accommodate a static load-time dependency associated with the plurality of second software drivers, the plurality of second software drivers corresponding to the plurality of respective second hardware components.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein a first hardware component type of the plurality of hardware components and a second hardware component type of the plurality of second hardware components are same.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of hardware components is a plurality of respective cameras; and
wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the access of the software drivers to the respective cameras to be controlled by causing the requests to be serially provided from the respective software drivers to the respective cameras.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of second hardware components;
wherein the operating system is further configured to load a plurality of second software drivers, which correspond to the plurality of respective second hardware components, in parallel based at least in part on the plurality of second hardware components being a same second hardware component type;
wherein the instructions, when executed, cause access of the second software drivers to the respective second hardware components to be controlled by causing second requests to be serially provided from the respective second software drivers to the respective second hardware components in response to the plurality of second software drivers being loaded, the second requests requesting initiation of communication with the respective second hardware components; and
wherein the instructions, when executed, allow a request from a software driver of the plurality of software drivers to be provided to a respective hardware component of the plurality of hardware components in parallel with a second request from a second software driver of the plurality of second software drivers being provided to a respective second hardware component of the plurality of second hardware components.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of hardware components are a first hardware component type; and
wherein the plurality of second hardware components are a second hardware component type that is different from the first hardware component type.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operating system is configured to load the plurality of software drivers in parallel with the plurality of second software drivers.

11. A method performed during initialization of a computing device, the method comprising:
loading a plurality of software drivers of the computing device, which correspond to a plurality of respective hardware components of the computing device, in parallel based at least in part on the hardware components being a same hardware component type; and
controlling access of the software drivers to the respective hardware components by serially providing requests from the respective software drivers to the respective hardware components in response to loading the software drivers, the requests requesting initiation of communication with the respective hardware components.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
removing a static load-time dependency associated with the software drivers to enable the loading of the software drivers in parallel.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
creating a designated event that is capable of being assigned to one of the software drivers at a time;
wherein serially providing the requests comprises:
serially providing the requests during respective periods of time during which the designated event is assigned to the respective software drivers.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein serially providing the requests comprises:
receiving the requests from the respective software drivers by the one or more processors; and
programming circuitry by the one or more processors to cause the circuitry to serially provide the requests to the respective hardware components.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
loading a second plurality of software drivers of the computing device serially to accommodate a static load-time dependency associated with the second plurality of software drivers.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein a first hardware component type of the plurality of hardware components and a second hardware component type of a second plurality of hardware components to which the plurality of respective software drivers correspond are same.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of software drivers is a plurality of first software drivers and the plurality of hardware components is a plurality of first hardware components;
wherein controlling the access comprises:
causing first circuitry to control the access of the first software drivers to the respective first hardware components;

wherein the method further comprises:
loading a plurality of second software drivers of the computing device, which correspond to a plurality of respective second hardware components of the computing device, in parallel based at least in part on the plurality of second hardware components being a same second hardware component type; and
causing second circuitry to control access of the second software drivers to the respective second hardware components by causing second requests to be provided from the respective second software drivers to the respective second hardware components in response to the plurality of second software drivers bein

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Lei Maria Cheng
• Jain Vishal

Classifications

• G06F13/105

  where the program performs an input/output emulation function · CPC title

• G06F9/4401

  Bootstrapping (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06F9/4406

  Loading of operating system · CPC title

• G06F9/4411 Primary

  Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers · CPC title