Question

What is a device driver? Why device drivers are essential?

Answer 1

A device driver is a program that controls a particular type of device that is attached to your computer. There are device drivers for printers, displays, CD-ROM readers, diskette drives, and so on. When you buy an operating system, many device drivers are built into the product.

Answer 2

DEVICE DRIVERS

Device driver is a small piece of software that directs the operating system with respect with communication with piece of hardware. It means that Operating system and hardware can't communicate directly they need a medium which is device drivers.

                        With the help of device drivers our computer works smoothly due to no disturbance in communication within computer. It also has other functions such as:-

• Identifying and starting devices:- It identifies some devices which are required when you start computer and when you power on the computer the device driver starts those devices.

• Handling interruption:- It is also resonsible to handle the interruptions generated by any device.

• Performing device operations:- It perform operations on device when we use the process of system call.