4. Device Drivers

A driver is a piece of software that converts commands such as 'PRINT', into instructions that the particular piece of hardware (printer) can understand.

The operating system is usually pre-loaded with drivers for all of the hardware it needs to control.

However, as time goes by, new hardware is developed and the operating system won't have the correct driver. So, the manufacturer of the hardware will provide the correct 'driver' on a disk or as a download from their web site.

Any piece of hardware that communicates with the CPU needs a driver, for instance inside the computer itself there will be drivers for the sound card, graphics card, network card and peripherals such as printer, scanner, digital camera, mp3 player and so on.

Each operating system needs its own driver for the same hardware device. This is why a 'Windows' driver for a certain printer is not likely to work in a different operating system such as Linux and vice versa.