Methods and apparatus are provided for automatically loading drivers on
computers for devices coupled to a communication medium such as an IEEE
1394 serial bus. Operating systems running on the computers detect when a
device is connected to the communication medium. The operating systems
then determine whether one of the drivers stored in memory on the device
will enable the computers to utilize the device. The operating systems
will then load the appropriate drivers for their respective computers and
allow access to the device. If none of the drivers on the memory are
suitable for a particular computer, then its operating system will prompt
a user to manually insert a computer-readable medium containing the
appropriate drivers. Thus, the present invention provides methods and
apparatus for automatically loading device drivers.
