Hardware Developer Documentation: Device Managers and Drivers

PATH Hardware Developer Documentation > Device Managers and Drivers

Device Managers and Drivers are software components that support specific hardware devices or types of devices. Most applications do not need to deal with devices at such a level.

ADB Devices
The Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) is used to communicate with the keyboard, the mouse, and other user-input devices.

ATA Devices
ATA stands for AT Attachment, a standard interface used with storage devices such as hard disk drives. ATA drives are also referred to as integrated drive electronics (IDE) drives.

Block-Level Device Drivers
Block devices read and write blocks of data and provide random access to data. Disk drives are the most common block devices.

Cursor Devices
Cursor devices control the location of the cursor and include relative devices, such as a mouse, and absolute devices, such as a graphics tablet.

Device Manager
The Device Manager is the part of the Mac OS that controls the exchange of information between applications and hardware devices.

Display Devices
The Display Manager communicates with a video device driver to change display modes for displays that support multiple screen resolutions.

Ethernet Driver
The Ethernet driver controls communication over the Ethernet.

Name Registry
The Name Registry is a high-level Mac OS service that stores the names and relations of hardware and software components including I/O devices and drivers.

PC Card Services
PC Card Services are system software used by all PC Card (PCMCIA card) client software.

PCI Card Services
PCI Card drivers are supported by several parts of the Mac OS, such as the Name Registry and the Driver Servies Library.

Power Manager
The Power Manager is the part of the Mac OS that controls power to the internal hardware devices of Macintosh PowerBook computers.

SCSI Manager
The SCSI Manager is the part of the Mac OS that controls the transfer of data between a Macintosh computer and peripheral devices connected through the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI).

Serial Driver
The Serial Driver supports asynchronous serial data communication between applications and serial devices connected to the modem and printer ports.

Slot Manager
The Slot Manager is the part of the Mac OS that allows an application or a device driver to communicate directly with NuBus expansion cards. (In Macintosh computers with PCI slots, the Name Registry replaces the Slot Manager for most operations.)

USB Devices
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a high-speed serial bus used to communicate with human interface devices such as the Apple USB keyboard and mouse; low-bandwidth USB devices such as printers, scanners, modems, and mass-storage devices; and USB gaming devices, such as joysticks.