Types of Devices
1. Dedicated Device
Certain devices are assigned to only one task at a time in device management until that task releases them. Plotters, printers, tape drives, and other similar devices require this kind of allocation method because sharing them with numerous users at the same time will be inconvenient. The drawback of these devices is the inefficiency that results from assigning the device to a single user throughout the entirety of the task execution process, even in cases when the device is not utilized exclusively.
2. Shared Device
There are numerous processes that these devices could be assigned to. Disk-DASD could be shared concurrently by many processes by interleaving their requests. All issues must be resolved by pre-established policies, and the Device Manager closely monitors the interleaving.
3. Virtual Device
Virtual devices are dedicated devices that have been converted into shared devices, making them a hybrid of the two types of devices. For instance, a spooling programme that routes all print requests to a disc can turn a printer into a sharing device. A print job is routed to the disc and not delivered straight to the printer until it is ready with all the necessary formatting and sequencing, at which time it is sent to the printers. The method can increase usability and performance by turning a single printer into a number of virtual printers.
Device Management in Operating System
The process of implementation, operation, and maintenance of a device by an operating system is called device management. When we use computers we will have various devices connected to our system like mouse, keyboard, scanner, printer, and pen drives. So all these are the devices and the operating system acts as an interface that allows the users to communicate with these devices. An operating system is responsible for successfully establishing the connection between these devices and the system. The operating system uses the concept of drivers to establish a connection between these devices with the system.