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    Device Drivers

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    Faroog fatma Jafri
    Device drivers allow software programs to communicate with hardware devices by acting as a translator. They process requests from applications and send instructions to the hardware. Device drivers have a configuration interface and logical and physical layers. They must follow an agreed structure with a device header, strategy routine, and interrupt routine. Device drivers interface with devices like printers, network cards, and storage and can be DLL, EXE, kernel-mode, or user-mode files. Virtual device drivers emulate hardware in virtualization.

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    Device Drivers

    Uploaded by

    Faroog fatma Jafri
    823 views12 pages
    Device drivers allow software programs to communicate with hardware devices by acting as a translator. They process requests from applications and send instructions to the hardware. Device drivers have a configuration interface and logical and physical layers. They must follow an agreed structure with a device header, strategy routine, and interrupt routine. Device drivers interface with devices like printers, network cards, and storage and can be DLL, EXE, kernel-mode, or user-mode files. Virtual device drivers emulate hardware in virtualization.

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    Device drivers allow software programs to communicate with hardware devices by acting as a translator. They process requests from applications and send instructions to the hardware. Device drivers have a configuration interface and logical and physical layers. They must follow an agreed structure with a device header, strategy routine, and interrupt routine. Device drivers interface with devices like printers, network cards, and storage and can be DLL, EXE, kernel-mode, or user-mode files. Virtual device drivers emulate hardware in virtualization.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    823 views12 pages

    Device Drivers

    Uploaded by

    Faroog fatma Jafri
    Device drivers allow software programs to communicate with hardware devices by acting as a translator. They process requests from applications and send instructions to the hardware. Device drivers have a configuration interface and logical and physical layers. They must follow an agreed structure with a device header, strategy routine, and interrupt routine. Device drivers interface with devices like printers, network cards, and storage and can be DLL, EXE, kernel-mode, or user-mode files. Virtual device drivers emulate hardware in virtualization.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 12

    M.I.E.

    T Bhandara
    Topic-Device Drivers

    Presented by - Faroog Fatma Jafri


    Definition
    • In computing, a device driver or software driver is
    a computer program allowing higher-level computer
    programs to interact with a hardware device.
    • A device driver simplifies programming by acting as
    translator between a hardware device and the
    applications or operating system that use it.
    Why Do We Need Device Drivers?
    • In the early days of computers, programmers wrote
    programs that worked directly at the hardware level.
    • If the program needed to access information from an
    external piece of machinery such as a card reader for
    instance, the program had to deal directly with that
    card reader in a highly detailed way.
    • The same program might not work with a different
    card reader, even when running on the same type of
    computer, meaning that the program would have to be
    rewritten.
    Functions

    • A device driver processes the request of an


    application and then sends the instruction to the
    hardware device to produce the output.
    • A device driver typically has a configuration
    interface that can be accessed so that the user can
    make adjustments to the hardware device.
    Design
    • Device drivers can be abstracted into logical
    and physical layers.
    • Logical layers process data for a class of devices such
    as Ethernet ports or disk drives.
    • Physical layers communicate with specific device
    instances.
    • For example, a serial ports needs to handle standard
    communication protocols such as XON/OFF that are
    common for all serial port hardware.
    The Structure Of A Device Driver

    • A device driver by its nature has a very rigid


    structure.
    • DOS must be able to work properly with any driver,
    so all drivers must follow an agreed upon design.
    • Every driver is made up of three parts: the device
    header, the strategy routine, and the interrupt routine,
    and are everything that DOS needs to use the driver.
    File Types

    • A device driver can have a file type of DLL or EXE


    depending on what type or program is being used.
    • Many software programs that communicate with a
    device use a combination of DLL and EXE files in
    order for the device to function properly.
    • An example of this would be a TV Tuner card.
    Kernel-mode vs user-mode
    • Device drivers, particularly on modern Windows
    platforms, can run in kernel-mode0 (Ring ) or in user-
    mode (Ring 3).
    • The primary benefit of running a driver in user mode
    is improved stability, since a poorly written user
    mode device driver cannot crash the system by
    overwriting kernel memory. 
    • On the other hand, user/kernel-mode transitions
    usually impose a considerable performance overhead,
    thereby prohibiting user mode-drivers for low latency
    and high throughput requirements.
    Applications
    Drivers may interface with:
    • Printers
    • Video adapters
    • Network Cards
    • Sound Cards
    •  Devices such as Hard Disk, CD-ROM and Floppy
    Disk buses (ATA, SATA, SCSI)
    • Image Scanners
    • Digital Cameras etc
    Virtual device drivers

    • Virtual device drivers represent a particular variant of


    device drivers. They are used to emulate a hardware
    device, particularly in virtualization environments.
    • For example when a DOS program is run on
    a Microsoft Windows computer or when a
    guest operating system is run on, for example,
    a Xen host.
    Thank You

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