Browsing by Author "Loubser, Johannes Jacobus"
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- ItemDevice drivers : a comparison of different development strategies(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000-03) Loubser, Johannes Jacobus; De Villiers, P. J. A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Science. Department of Mathematical Sciences.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Users are not supposed to modify an operating system kernel, but it is often necessary to add a device driver for a new peripheral device. Device driver development is a difficult and time-consuming process that must be performed by an expert. Drivers are difficult to debug and a malfunctioning driver could cause the operating system to crash. Ways are therefore needed to make the development of device drivers safer and easier. A number of different device driver development methods are examined in this thesis. An existing micro-kernel that supports in-kernel device drivers as well as extensible device drivers has been modified to support user-level and loadable drivers. These extensions ensured that all the development methods were implemented in the same environment and a comparison could thus be made on a fair basis. A comparison of the different methods with respect to the efficiency of the resulting device driver, as well as the ease of the development process, is presented.