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Date:	Sat, 29 Dec 2001 01:09:46 PST7
From:	"Steven Levine" <steve53@earthlink.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Device driver: was Linksys Wireless Access Point

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In <3C2D3114.CE25013A@usa.net>, on 12/28/01
at 06:57 PM, Sheridan George said:

>Maybe we should entertain a change from the programming SIG (which seems
>to have fallen by the wayside) to a device driver SIG.

I'm just waiting for some workers to show up.

>Learning how to create device drivers is probably not that big a problem.

It is and it isn't. All the tools and samples are free for the asking
from IBM's DDK site. Working sample code is available. Watcom 11.0c is
now available from OpenWatcom. That said, you need to understand the
driver architecture and understand how to use the tools and understand how
to effectively test a driver.

Peter trivializes the work required to write a driver. It really depends
on the device. Adapting an existing driver to dump bits out to a DAC is
pretty simple. Adapting an existing sound card driver to drive a
different chipset is significantly more work. Writing a firewire driver
is even more work.

>Getting device manufactures to make detailed functional information
>available will be the big hurdle. If we can get the info. we can solve

This is not the problem it used to be. Most of the cards out there use
commodity chips and reference designs.

>at least some driver problems for our selves. Or maybe we can learn how
>to port Linux drivers.

Much of the work has already been done for you. See the drivers available
at Netlabs.

>Is this doable or am I an academic living in an ivory tower?

It's very doable for anyone willing to invest the time. Of course, the
first one is always the most difficult. This is where you get to figure
out which header file contains what and so on.

Steven

--
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