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    Dos Device Drivers BTCS-703

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    rubinder
    This document discusses device drivers in DOS. It explains that device drivers allow communication with hardware and are loaded at startup from CONFIG.SYS. Built-in drivers include CON:, LPT1:, and disk drives A:, B:, C:. Device drivers are characterized as block or character drivers and transfer data in blocks or individually. The document provides examples of common DOS device drivers like ANSI.SYS, EMM384.SYS, and RAMDRIVE.SYS. It also describes how drivers are organized in memory and searched by DOS.

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    Dos Device Drivers BTCS-703

    Uploaded by

    rubinder
    100 views10 pages
    This document discusses device drivers in DOS. It explains that device drivers allow communication with hardware and are loaded at startup from CONFIG.SYS. Built-in drivers include CON:, LPT1:, and disk drives A:, B:, C:. Device drivers are characterized as block or character drivers and transfer data in blocks or individually. The document provides examples of common DOS device drivers like ANSI.SYS, EMM384.SYS, and RAMDRIVE.SYS. It also describes how drivers are organized in memory and searched by DOS.

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    This document discusses device drivers in DOS. It explains that device drivers allow communication with hardware and are loaded at startup from CONFIG.SYS. Built-in drivers include CON:, LPT1:, and disk drives A:, B:, C:. Device drivers are characterized as block or character drivers and transfer data in blocks or individually. The document provides examples of common DOS device drivers like ANSI.SYS, EMM384.SYS, and RAMDRIVE.SYS. It also describes how drivers are organized in memory and searched by DOS.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    100 views10 pages

    Dos Device Drivers BTCS-703

    Uploaded by

    rubinder
    This document discusses device drivers in DOS. It explains that device drivers allow communication with hardware and are loaded at startup from CONFIG.SYS. Built-in drivers include CON:, LPT1:, and disk drives A:, B:, C:. Device drivers are characterized as block or character drivers and transfer data in blocks or individually. The document provides examples of common DOS device drivers like ANSI.SYS, EMM384.SYS, and RAMDRIVE.SYS. It also describes how drivers are organized in memory and searched by DOS.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 10

    DOS DEVICE DRIVERS

    BTCS-703
    Introduction

     Device drivers are sets of procedures that are used to


    communicate with the hardware on the computer.
     The task performed by device drivers is in this respect similar
    to software interrupts. However, while each interrupt routine
    has a different calling strategy, all device drivers have a
    standard method of operation.
     This makes it possible to write programs that interface with
    arbitrary devices, either monitor, printer or disk drives.
     Device drivers are not like normal programs since they
    cannot be run from the DOS command line. Instead they
    must be loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file at boot-up time using
    a device command.
    MS-DOS DEVICE DRIVERS
    DOS has a number of built-in drivers to communicate with
    the console (keyboard+screen), printer, disk-drives, etc. The
    device drivers are given specific names.

    Built-In Drivers:
    Name of Device Name of Driver
    Console CON:
    Printer LPT1:LPT2:LPT3:
    Serial Ports COM!:COM2:COM3:COM4:
    Null device NUL:
    Disk drive A A:
    Disk drive B B:
    Disk drive C C:
    Usage of device drivers

     When the programmer uses DOS interrupt


    calls, the relevant device drivers are
    automatically used.
     File commands can access just about any
    device but the more specific commands use
    particular devices.
     The screen output DOS commands explicity
    use the CON: device while the printer output
    DOS commands probably use the PRN:
    Loading device drivers

     Device drivers are loaded in memory in the


    order in which they are encountered in
    CONFIG.SYS.
     DOS maintains a linked list of these drivers,
    with new drivers being added to the head of
    the list. When a device driver is accessed, the
    list is searched from the head. The latest
    driver is found first and is subsequently used.
    MS-DOS DEVICE DRIVERS TYPES

    Block Device Drivers


    Character Device Drivers
    • Character Device Drivers: one character
    or byte at a time for i/o data
    transfer
     Single h/w unit support
     Application program accessibility-
    By name
    By function calls
    By using default handles

    • Block Device Drivers: Data transfer


    fixed or variable blocks/chunks
     Controls random/non random mass storage
    devices.
     Two or more h/w unit support
    STRUCTURE OF MS-DOS DEVICE DRIVERS
    MS – DOS Device Driver Structure
    Initialization
    Media Check
    Build BPB
    I/O Control Read and Write
    Status
    Read

    Interrupt Write, Write/Verify


    Output until Busy

    Header Flash Buffers


    Device open
    Device Close
    Check whether Removable
    Generic IOCTL
    Get/set Logical Device
    Various MS-DOS Device Drivers

    ANSI.SYS HIMEM.SYS
    EGA.SYS SETVER.EXE
    PRINTER.SYS DISPLAY.SYS
    INTERLINK.EXE
    CHKSTATE.SYS
    SMARTDRV.EXE
    EMM384.SYS DRIVER.SYS
    RAMDRIVE.SYS POWER.EXE
    DBLSPACE.SYS SMARTDRV.SYS
    Usage of Device Drivers
     ANSI.SYS: Provides Screen customization (includes
    coloring and extending) and keyboard functions .
     SETVER.EXE: Includes an label from CONFIG.SYS that
    device drivers read while booting the system.
     SMARTDRV.SYS: establishes the disk cache
     RAMDRIVE.SYS: Allows portion of m/y as disk
     MOUSE.SYS is device driver for mouse installed in CONFIG.SYS file
     Screen output DOS commands explicitly use CON:
     Printer output DOS commands use the PRN: or
     ANSI.SYS allows DOS user to move cursor, screen optimization and color
    setting etc.
    Loading Device Drivers
    Device Drivers are loaded in m/y in the order they appear
    in COFIG.SYS
    DOS maintain Linked list of these drivers .
    New Driver added at the head of list.

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