Device drivers interface in HelenOS system

An introduction into device drivers, the significance of the unified interface for device drivers within the operating system. A brief description of the basic principles of hardware fromthe programmer's point of view. The HelenOS operating system overview - the description of the basic funcional blocks of microkernel, the current support of user-space device drivers, e.g. the support for accessing device's registers and interrupt processing from user-space. Common functions of the interface for device drivers and their relation to the needs of the HelenOS operating system. The problems usually solved by contemporary driver frameworks and the known ways of solving them - device-centric vs. driver-centric device-to-driver matching, device IDs, the number of supported device classes, device driver entry points, the representation of a device tree. Design and implementation - hierarchical device management, device auto-detection, predefined interfaces for access to devices, device classes, controlling the device driver's life cycle and device-to-driver matching, the installation and the configuration of a device driver. The description of device drivers in some contemporary operating system and their comparison - device drivers in Windows, Solaris and Linux. The evaluation and the possibilities of future..