Driver Developer Kit Overview

The DDK helps you develop dynamically loadable device drivers and graphics device handlers for Solaris 2.4 by providing you with the necessary software tools, technical assistance, on-line documentation, and technical training information.

Device drivers present the kernel with a consistent interface to diverse devices. Solaris supports a set of source-level interfaces between drivers and the kernel called the device driver interface/driver-kernel interface (DDI/DKI). Device drivers are dynamically loaded by the SunOS^(TM) kernel. Device driver code runs as kernel-level code.

Graphics device handlers (or device handlers) are software modules that add device-specific support for a VISUAL^(TM) for Solaris graphics foundation library. Each VISUAL for Solaris foundation library defines a device porting interface, called a graphics porting interface (GPI). With the help of the DDK, you can write a device handler for a specific foundation library that is compliant with the GPI for that foundation library and is dynamically loaded by that foundation library. Device handler code runs as user-level code.

For graphics devices, you generally need to write both a device driver and a graphics device handler for one or more VISUAL libraries.

Also included in the DDK are FCode development tools you need to help you write OpenBoot PROM code for SBus cards.

DDK components are the software tools, libraries, server, and on-line documentation the make up the DDK. Except for the OpenWindows X Server, which is delivered on the Solaris CD-ROM disc, the following DDK components are provided on the DDK CD-ROM disc:

• Sample drivers and driver development tools
• Device driver handler support for VISUAL for Solaris, which includes:

  · OpenWindows X Server

  · XGL graphics library

  · XIL imaging library

• FCode development tools
• On-line documentation

These DDK components are explained further in Chapter 2, "DDK Components."

How the DDK Fits Into a Solaris Development Environment

Solaris developers produce applications, drivers, and graphics handlers that are ready for the end-user Solaris runtime environments. A Solaris development environment may be constructed using the Solaris runtime environments (available with any version of Solaris 2.4), developer kits (the Solaris 2.4 Driver Developer Kit and Software Developer Kit), and compilers (the ProCompilers and SPARCompilers C and C++).

The DDK contributes to this environment by providing the background information, requirements, and testing tools that you need to create software support for specific hardware devices in the Solaris runtime environments. The DDK provides the information you need to create a wide array of hardware drivers. In some cases, the DDK reduces direct coding efforts by providing sample driver code as starting points for driver development.

For more information on the Solaris 2.4 release, see the Solaris 2.4 Introduction manual.

New DDK Features

The following features are new to the Solaris 2.4 DDK:

• The DDK software and documentation are now merged so that there is support for both the x86 and SPARC architectures.

New features for each component (for example, new Sample Drivers and Driver Development Tools features) are described in Chapter 2, "DDK Components."