Specialized Device Driver Transformation for Embedded Systems

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Solution Overview

Problem

Customized device drivers in embedded systems complicate modifications and are inefficient, as they require indirect access to devices, leading to increased overhead and difficulty in managing various devices.

Innovation Solution

Transforming generic device drivers into specialized versions by directly accessing devices and updating compatibility identifiers to prioritize efficient device management, allowing for direct access and improved performance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If generic device drivers are used to control multiple devices, then device driver flexibility and reusability are improved, but access overhead increases and device access efficiency deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedevice driver flexibilityVSAvoiddevice access efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments device drivers into two categories: generic device drivers that maintain data structures for multiple devices, and specialized device drivers that are optimized for specific devices. The transformation process creates specialized versions by extracting device-specific information from the generic driver, allowing the system to use efficient specialized drivers for actual device access while keeping generic drivers for flexibility.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary transformation of generic device drivers into specialized device drivers before runtime execution. During system initialization or device detection, the transformation process pre-generates optimized driver versions by injecting device-specific parameters (like base addresses) into template drivers, eliminating the need for indirect data structure lookups during actual device operations.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Productivity

If customized device drivers are created for each device in embedded systems, then device access efficiency is improved, but system modification difficulty and complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedevice access efficiencyVSAvoiddriver management complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a universal transformation framework that can generate specialized device drivers for multiple different devices using a single generic driver template. The transformation process universally handles device-specific parameters through metadata files and template injection, allowing one generic driver to serve as the basis for many specialized drivers across different device types.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses template copying where a generic device driver serves as a template that is copied and transformed into multiple specialized device drivers. The transformation process copies the generic driver structure and injects device-specific information, creating optimized versions without manually rewriting each driver from scratch, thus reducing complexity while maintaining efficiency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Adaptability or versatility

If generic device drivers indirectly access devices through data structures, then driver reusability is improved, but access overhead and execution time increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedriver reusabilityVSAvoidaccess overhead time

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary transformation to embed device-specific information directly into specialized device drivers before runtime. During the transformation phase, base addresses and device parameters are injected into the driver code, so that during actual device access, the specialized driver can directly access devices without time-consuming indirect lookups in data structures.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts device-specific information from the generic driver's data structures and embeds it directly into the specialized driver code. The transformation process takes out parameters like base addresses from the generic driver's indirect access mechanisms and hardcodes them into the specialized driver, eliminating the overhead of data structure accesses while preserving driver functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS8245243B1Transforming device drivers to improve efficiency

Publication Date: 2012.08.14 XILINX INC

AI summary

Efficiency is improved for device drivers. A first library is input that includes a first version of the device drivers. First metadata is input that specifies the devices of the computing arrangement and associates each device with the first version of a corresponding device driver. The first version of the corresponding device driver for each device is transformed into a second version of the corresponding device driver. The first version of the corresponding device driver indirectly accesses the device and the second version of the corresponding device driver directly accesses the device. A second library is output including the second version of the corresponding device driver for each device.