Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model - Softcover

Oney, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0735605882 ISBN 13: 9780735605886

Publisher: Microsoft Press,U.S., 1999

Synopsis

A device driver is the code interface that enables a CPU to communicate with a device. The Windows Driver Model (WDM) is Microsoft's new common driver model for the Windows 98 and Windows 2000 operating systems. The Windows Driver Model supports Plug and Play, provides power management capabilities, and expands on the driver/minidriver approach. Written by device-driver programming expert Walter Oney in close cooperation with the Microsoft Windows DDK team, PROGRAMMING THE MICROSOFT WINDOWS DRIVER MODEL provides extensive practical examples, illustrations, advice, and line-by-line analysis of code samples to clarify real-world driver-programming issues.

About this title

Review

Written for advanced C/C++ programmers, Walter Oney's Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model is a technically astute and clearly presented guide to writing custom Windows 2000 device drivers.

The author's command of the details of the new Windows Driver Model (WDM) standard is what makes this book such a clear success. (Because the WDM is rich in kernel and system services, the trick is often knowing how to use what's available, rather than doing everything yourself.) The author presents a solid overview of the WDM architecture and breaks down the process of writing custom device drivers into manageable pieces, from the basics of loading device drivers, to creating and processing I/O request packets. The book is very good at exposing kernel system calls, design principles and programming techniques (such as managing synchronisation and handling errors). Technically detailed, but very clearly organised, the author also provides "nerd alerts" for extremely technical material.

The book shows you what you'll need to provide in order to create WDM drivers that co-operate fully with Windows 2000 (and Windows 98). Features like Plug and Play (PnP), Windows power management, and the new Windows Management Instrumentation (WDM) standard get full attention here. To get you started, the author provides plenty of sample code (plus a custom Visual C++ AppWizard that generates skeleton code for a default WDM driver). Examples for working with the S5933 PCI chip set (and other simple hardware) let you see WDM drivers in action.

The process of writing device drivers certainly has changed from the early days of DOS. But armed with this handy and thorough book, C/C++ programmers can successfully create drivers for custom hardware that take full advantage of all the features of the powerful new WDM standard. --Richard Dragan, Amazon.com

Topics covered: Windows Driver Model (WDM) overview and driver structure, kernel mode, physical, filter, function and bus drivers, loading device drivers (DDs), driver objects, Windows 98 compatibility, kernel mode programming basics, error handling, memory management, synchronisation, interrupt request levels, kernel synchronisation objects, I/O request packets (IRPs), completion routines, plug and play (PnP) basics, reading and writing data, direct memory access (DMA) transfers, power management, error logging, watchdog timers, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Universal Serial Bus (USB): bulk transfer and isochronous pipes, installing DDs: INF files, property pages and registry keys. --Sarah Taylor

About the Author

Walter Oney has 35 years of experience in systems-level programming and has been teaching Windows device driver classes for 10 years. He was a contributing editor to Microsoft Systems Journal and is a Microsoft MVP. He has written several books, including Systems Programming for Windows 95 and the first edition of Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model. In his free time he's a committed jogger, a fan of classical dance, and an amateur oboist. He and his wife, Marty, live in Boston, Massachusetts.

Edition details

• Publisher: Microsoft Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0735605882
• ISBN 13: 9780735605886
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 626