Charles L Wickham2205 109Th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98004

2002002, Mar 7, 2002

Jun 12, 1998

09/096690

JAMEEL HYDER - REDMOND WA, US
ARVIND MADHAV MURCHING - REDMOND WA, US
CHARLES LAWRENCE WICKHAM - REDMOND WA, US

G06F009/54
G06F013/10

709/321000

In an I/O subsystem comprising device drivers for controlling connection-oriented hardware adapters, a method, computer program product, and system is presented that allows a client to interact with a connection interface provided by an enhanced integrating component. An integrating component allows data transport drivers and hardware device drivers to be “bound” together to form data communication channels in an arbitrary fashion without knowledge beforehand as to configuration; each are programmed to the integrating component. The connection interface in the enhanced integrating component allows the connection-oriented device driver development to be simplified and result in smaller, less complex device drivers because the driver is no longer required to provide a connection interface. Added benefits include having a standardized method for making connections to many different types of underlying media through an abstracted connection interface that “hides” many of the media specific details for making connections.