Device driver in the context of "Open-source hardware"

Graphics hardware is computer hardware that generates computer graphics and allows them to be shown on a display, usually using a graphics card (video card) in combination with a device driver to create the images on the screen.

The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and is capable of holding uncompressed stereo audio. First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc format to reach the market, following the larger LaserDisc (LD). In later years, the technology was adapted for computer data storage as CD-ROM and subsequently expanded into various writable and multimedia formats. As of 2007, over 200 billion CDs (including audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and CD-Rs) had been sold worldwide.

Standard CDs have a diameter of 120 millimetres (4.7 inches) and typically hold up to 74 minutes of audio or approximately 650 MiB (681,574,400 bytes) of data. This was later regularly extended to 80 minutes or 700 MiB (734,003,200 bytes) by reducing the spacing between data tracks, with some discs unofficially reaching up to 99 minutes or 870 MiB (912,261,120 bytes) which falls outside established specifications. Smaller variants, such as the Mini CD, range from 60 to 80 millimetres (2.4 to 3.1 in) in diameter and have been used for CD singles or distributing device drivers and software.

C is a general-purpose programming language. It was created in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie and remains widely used and influential. By design, C gives the programmer relatively direct access to the features of the typical CPU architecture, customized for the target instruction set. It has been and continues to be used to implement operating systems (especially kernels), device drivers, and protocol stacks, but its use in application software has been decreasing. C is used on computers that range from the largest supercomputers to the smallest microcontrollers and embedded systems.

A successor to the programming language B, C was originally developed at Bell Labs by Ritchie between 1972 and 1973 to construct utilities running on Unix. It was applied to re-implementing the kernel of the Unix operating system. During the 1980s, C gradually gained popularity. It has become one of the most widely used programming languages, with C compilers available for practically all modern computer architectures and operating systems. The book The C Programming Language, co-authored by the original language designer, served for many years as the de facto standard for the language. C has been standardized since 1989 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and, subsequently, jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

A kernel is a computer program at the core of a computer's operating system that always has complete control over everything in the system. The kernel is also responsible for preventing and mitigating conflicts between different processes. It is the portion of the operating system code that is always resident in memory and facilitates interactions between hardware and software components. A full kernel controls all hardware resources (e.g. I/O, memory, cryptography) via device drivers, arbitrates conflicts between processes concerning such resources, and optimizes the use of common resources, such as CPU, cache, file systems, and network sockets. On most systems, the kernel is one of the first programs loaded on startup (after the bootloader). It handles the rest of startup as well as memory, peripherals, and input/output (I/O) requests from software, translating them into data-processing instructions for the central processing unit.

The critical code of the kernel is usually loaded into a separate area of memory, which is protected from access by application software or other less critical parts of the operating system. The kernel performs its tasks, such as running processes, managing hardware devices such as the hard disk, and handling interrupts, in this protected kernel space. In contrast, application programs such as browsers, word processors, or audio or video players use a separate area of memory, user space. This prevents user data and kernel data from interfering with each other and causing instability and slowness, as well as preventing malfunctioning applications from affecting other applications or crashing the entire operating system. Even in systems where the kernel is included in application address spaces, memory protection is used to prevent unauthorized applications from modifying the kernel.

CPU modes (also called processor modes, CPU states, CPU privilege levels and other names) are operating modes for the central processing unit of most computer architectures that place restrictions on the type and scope of operations that can be performed by instructions being executed by the CPU. For example, this design allows an operating system to run with more privileges than application software by running the operating systems and applications in different modes.

Ideally, only highly trusted kernel code is allowed to execute in the unrestricted mode; everything else (including non-supervisory portions of the operating system) runs in a restricted mode and must use a system call (via interrupt) to request the kernel perform on its behalf any operation that could damage or compromise the system, making it impossible for untrusted programs to alter or damage other programs (or the computing system itself). Device drivers are designed to be part of the kernel due to the need for frequent I/O access.

FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable home-class hardware, and has since continuously been the most commonly used BSD-derived operating system.

FreeBSD maintains a complete system, delivering a kernel, device drivers, userland utilities, and documentation, as opposed to Linux only delivering a kernel and drivers, and relying on third-parties such as GNU for system software. The FreeBSD source code is generally released under a permissive BSD license, as opposed to the copyleft GPL used by Linux. The project includes a security team overseeing all software shipped in the base distribution. Third-party applications may be installed using the pkg package management system or from source via FreeBSD Ports. The project is supported and promoted by the FreeBSD Foundation.

ReactOS is a free and open-source operating system for i586/amd64 personal computers that is intended to be binary-compatible with computer programs and device drivers developed for Windows Server 2003 and later versions of Microsoft Windows. ReactOS has been noted as a potential open-source drop-in replacement for Windows and has been of interest for its information on undocumented Windows APIs.

ReactOS has been in development since 1996. As of October 2025, it is still considered to be feature-incomplete alpha software. Therefore, it is recommended by the developers to be used only for evaluation and testing purposes. However, many Windows applications are working, such as Adobe Reader 9.3, GIMP 2.6, and LibreOffice 5.4.

Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and is capable of holding uncompressed stereo audio. First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc format to reach the market, following the larger LaserDisc (LD). In later years, the technology was adapted for computer data storage as CD-ROM and subsequently expanded into various writable and multimedia formats. As of 2007, over 200 billion CDs (including audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and CD-Rs) had been sold worldwide.

Standard CDs have a diameter of 120 millimetres (4.7 inches) and typically hold up to 74 minutes of audio or approximately 650 MiB (681,574,400 bytes) of data. This was later regularly extended to 80 minutes or 700 MiB (734,003,200 bytes) by reducing the spacing between data tracks, with some discs unofficially reaching up to 99 minutes or 870 MiB (912,261,120 bytes) which falls outside established specifications. Smaller variants, such as the Mini CD, range from 60 to 80 millimetres (2.4 to 3.1 in) in diameter and have been used for CD singles or distributing device drivers and software.

Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are speakers marketed for use with computers, although usually capable of other audio uses, e.g. for a shelf stereo or television. Most such speakers have an internal amplifier and consequently require a power source, which may be by a mains power supply often via an AC adapter, batteries, or a USB port. The signal input connector is often an analog 3.5 mm jack plug (usually color-coded lime green per the PC 99 standard); RCA connectors are sometimes used, and a USB port or Bluetooth antenna may supply a digital signal to an onboard DAC (some of which work only on computers with an appropriate device driver). Battery-powered wireless speakers require no cables at all. Most computers have speakers of low power and quality built in; when external speakers are connected they disable the built-in speakers by default. Altec Lansing claims to have created the computer speaker market in 1990.

Computer speakers range widely in quality and in price. Computer speakers packaged with computer systems are typically small, plastic, and have mediocre sound quality. Some computer speakers have equalization features such as bass and treble controls. More sophisticated computer speakers can have a subwoofer unit to enhance bass output. The larger subwoofer enclosure usually contains the amplifiers for the subwoofer and the left and right speakers.

The PowerEdge (PE) line is Dell's server computer product line. PowerEdge machines come configured as tower, rack-mounted, or blade servers. Dell uses a consistent chip-set across servers in the same generation regardless of packaging, allowing for a common set of drivers and system-images.

Installation (or setup) of a computer program (including device drivers and plugins) is the act of making the program ready for execution. Installation refers to the particular configuration of software or hardware with a view to making it usable with the computer. A soft or digital copy of the piece of software (program) is needed to install it. There are different processes of installing a piece of software (program). Because the process varies for each program and each computer, programs (including operating systems) often come with an installer, a specialised program responsible for doing whatever is needed (see below) for the installation. Installation may be part of a larger software deployment process.

Installation typically involves files containing program code and data being copied/generated from the installation to new files on the local computer for easier access by the operating system, creating necessary directories, registering environment variables, providing a separate program for un-installation etc. Because program files are generally copied/generated in multiple locations, uninstallation usually involves more than just erasing the program folder. For example, registry files and other system code may need to be modified or deleted for a complete uninstallation.

A modern computer operating system usually uses virtual memory to provide separate address spaces or regions of a single address space, called user space and kernel space. This separation primarily provides memory protection and hardware protection from malicious or errant software behaviour.

Kernel space is strictly reserved for running a privileged operating system kernel, kernel extensions, and most device drivers. In contrast, user space is the memory area where application software, daemons, and some drivers execute, typically with one address space per process.