Device drivers

computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device

In computer architecture, microcode is a layer of low-level control data or instructions used to implement a processor's instruction set architecture or internal control sequences. It consists of hardware-level operations that carry out higher-level machine code instructions or direct internal sequencing in many digital components. In many modern Intel and AMD general-purpose processors, common instructions are decoded directly into internal micro-operations, while microcode is used mainly for more complex instructions, special cases, and processor updates.

CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs from client computers, process them, and send them to the appropriate printer.

software run under a kernel

Dynamically loadable module that extends a running operating system kernel

set of software routines that emulate platform-specific details, giving programs direct access to hardware resources in a device-independent, high performance manner

udev (userspace ) is a device manager and a device API set for the Linux kernel. As the successor of devfsd and hotplug, udev primarily manages device nodes in the directory. At the same time, udev also handles all user space events raised when hardware devices are added into the system or removed from it, including firmware loading as required by certain devices. udev was developed by Greg Kroah-Hartman and Kay Sievers, with much help from Dan Stekloff, among others.

closed-source device driver published only as binary code

free software project

Extensions of Windows Driver Model

graphic driver architecture for video card drivers running Microsoft Windows versions beginning with Windows Vista

NDISwrapper is a free software driver wrapper that enables the use of Windows XP network device drivers (for devices such as PCI cards, USB modems, and routers) on Linux operating systems. NDISwrapper works by implementing the Windows kernel and NDIS APIs and dynamically linking Windows network drivers to this implementation. As a result, it only works on systems based on the instruction set architectures supported by Windows, namely IA-32 and x86-64.

device driver framework

VxD is the device driver model used in Microsoft Windows/386 2.x, the 386 enhanced mode of Windows 3.x, Windows 9x, and to some extent also by the Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, and DR-DOS 7.02 (and higher) multitasker (TASKMGR). VxDs have access to the memory of the kernel and all running processes, as well as raw access to the hardware. Starting with Windows 98, Windows Driver Model was the recommended driver model to write drivers for, with the VxD driver model still being supported for backward compatibility, until Windows Me.

Certification for device drivers on Windows

in computing, an application programming interface for network interface cards

driverpack for Radeon GPUs

simulated device resembling a printer driver

computer software for connecting SCSI devices

API for hardware video acceleration

software toolset from Microsoft that enables the development of device drivers for the Microsoft Windows platform

software needed to operate motherboards

set of tools and libraries for developing device drivers under Microsoft Windows

The Current UMDF version is UMDF2.0 released with Windows Driver Kit(WDK) 8.1 and can be run in Windows 8.1

software operation that activates a display mode for a computer's display controller

Software for connecting to a printer

CEN/XFS or XFS (extensions for financial services) provides a client-server architecture for financial applications on the Microsoft Windows platform, especially peripheral devices such as EFTPOS terminals and ATMs which are unique to the financial industry. It is an international standard promoted by the European Committee for Standardization (known by the acronym CEN, hence CEN/XFS). The standard is based on the WOSA Extensions for Financial Services or WOSA/XFS developed by Microsoft.

driver framework by Microsoft

PC's hardware