About￿Drivers￿and￿System￿ Resources

This￿section￿gives￿you￿basic￿information￿about￿drivers￿and￿system￿ IRQs.

Drivers

A￿driver￿is￿a￿program￿that￿enables￿the￿operating￿system￿to￿work￿with￿a￿ hardware￿device.￿Your￿computer￿includes￿drivers￿for￿the￿audio,￿video,￿ infrared,￿touchpad,￿keyboard,￿CD-ROM￿drive,￿hard￿drive,￿floppy￿drive,￿and￿PC￿Card￿controller.￿When￿you￿add￿a￿device￿to￿your￿ computer,￿such￿as￿a￿printer,￿you￿install￿a￿driver￿for￿that￿device.

Different￿drivers￿are￿used￿by￿different￿operating￿systems.￿If￿you￿need￿ drivers￿for￿an￿operating￿system￿other￿than￿Windows￿98￿or￿Windows￿ NT,￿check￿the￿Drivers￿directory￿in￿your￿restore￿CD-ROM.￿Drivers￿for￿some￿other￿operating￿systems￿are￿included￿there.

IRQs

Most￿of￿the￿devices￿in￿your￿computer￿or￿connected￿to￿your￿computer￿ need￿their￿own￿IRQ.￿The￿IRQ￿is￿a￿hardware￿line￿that￿a￿device￿can￿use￿ to￿send￿signals￿to￿the￿microprocessor.￿When￿the￿device￿needs￿the￿ microprocessor’s￿service,￿the￿device￿sends￿an￿interrupt￿request￿signal￿ to￿the￿microprocessor.

The￿number￿of￿IRQs￿available￿for￿any￿computer￿is￿limited￿by￿industry￿ standards.￿Because￿it￿ships￿with￿numerous￿features,￿the￿M6000￿Series￿ computer￿uses￿most￿of￿the￿available￿IRQs.￿If￿you￿add￿another￿device￿to￿ your￿computer,￿you￿may￿need￿to￿disable￿an￿existing￿device￿to￿free￿up￿ an￿IRQ￿for￿the￿new￿device.￿IRQ￿resources￿are￿of￿particular￿concern￿ when￿the￿computer￿is￿attached￿to￿a￿docking￿device.

The￿IRQs￿that￿are￿used￿by￿your￿computer￿are￿listed￿in￿Table￿8.
Samsung￿M6000￿User’s￿ManualAbout￿Drivers￿and￿System￿Resources￿￿￿80