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About This Guide
This guide describes the ways in which hardware devices are integrated into and controlled from a Silicon Graphics® computer system running the IRIX(TM) operating system version 6.2 and above.
Three general classes of device-control software exist in an IRIX system: process-level drivers, kernel-level drivers, and STREAMS drivers.
- A process-level driver executes as part of a user-initiated process. Examples include the use of programmed I/O (PIO) to the VME bus, and control of external interrupts in a Challenge(TM) system.
- A kernel-level driver is loaded as part of the IRIX kernel and executes in the kernel address space, controlling one device in response to calls to its read, write, and ioctl (control) entry points.
- A STREAMS driver is dynamically loaded into the kernel address space to monitor or modify a stream of data passing between a device and a user process.
All three classes are discussed in this guide, although the greatest amount of attention is given to kernel-level drivers.
Note: This edition applies only to IRIX 6.2 and later. If you are working with an earlier release (4.x, 5.2, 5.3, 6.0.x, or 6.1), you should use the version of this manual appropriate to that release.
- Audience
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- What This Guide Contains
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- Other Sources of Information
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- Conventions Used in This Guide
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