Device Manager Providing Resource Control and Synchronization

In an embodiment, an operating system includes a device manager that is a central repository of device information. Device drivers may communicate with the device manager over respective channels, and may request channel identifiers (Cids) to communicate with resources related to the respective devices. The device manager may provide values for resource access (or handles that the resources may use to access values). In an embodiment, the device drivers do not have the ability to allocate resources for a peripheral device. Accordingly, the security of the system may be increased. Furthermore, the resource allocation may be centrally located, simplifying the process of updating resource allocation when needed. Additionally, the device manager may delay response to requests from a given device driver until its dependencies are clear (e.g. other device drivers and hardware initializations). Thus, startup scripts may be avoided in some embodiments.