Device Drivers Books

This is an amazing book. It's not a tutorial for a building device driver. For device driver developers, it is an essential reference for understanding NT's kernel system. This book is also great for those who are not building device drivers but want to understand the NT kernel. The chapters on virtual memory, I/O architecture and I/O managers are totally worth the price of the book.

If you are writing Windows Device Drivers, this is one of 3 books you absolutely must have. Buy it.

Dear all,

We have an plotter printer HP 7550a and we run NT as operating system. There are no drivers for nt for this printer.

We now are trying to get this printer working under wp 5.1 because there are no printer drivers for NT.

Who can help me get the driver I am looking for. It does not matter if it is an NT driver or an corel wp5.1 driver.

Please help me we would realy appriciate this efford !

with kind regards,

Jeropen van Mourik

ING BANK Netherlands

This book is VERY well written and VERY readable. I needed other sources to get an actual driver written (see Chris Cant's book) but only because this book gives a much more complete picture and I needed something more specific. That's my point...if you want a good, solid understanding of the system and an excellent reference, get this book. It's not often one finds technical-minded people with such writing skill.

I think its a good book and well organized, my only black poing is that I missed a toolkit section like WinDriver-www.jungo.com- or numega that enable easy and quick development.

This book combined with Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition, must be available in the library of all the emebedded system developers, based on Libux.
This book, give more information than linux device drivers, another iformations for the new developers, that are starting developing emebedded systems based on Linux.
So buy it.

Without a doubt, this is the best driver book I've ever purchased. In the first few chapters the author walks you through boot, interrupts, builds, installs etc so that you can make the most of his outstanding knowledge of drivers and driver design which fills 3/4 of the book. Even if you don't want to design or build your own driver, the first few chapters alone are worth the cost of the book and the knowledge he imparts about drivers is priceless. If you are a Linux Kernel analyst, you can do no better than purchase this. And as to his writing style.. I've read plenty of dry, boring Linux technical books but this one even has a most outstanding writing style. It was enjoyable to read. I cannot praise this book enough. If you're a newbie Linux Kernel Techie or someone who thinks they already know everything... you cannot go wrong. Buy it, read it and you will learn more about drivers than from any other book, and you'll learn a whole lot more besides.

This detailed guide to writing Linux device drivers is a solid acquisition for collections strong in advanced Linux programming: it's for audiences with a working knowledge of operating systems and C - but not necessarily device driver writing - and brings together all the basic concepts and methods needed to address common programming scenarios. Many driver are discussed in no other book, making Essential Linux Device Drivers a 'must have' for any collection serious about Linux programming applications.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I'd been frustrated by the fragmented and incomplete nature of documentation surrounding linux driver development. This is the book I was looking for, I guess.
I specifically liked:
1. the way the author ties all the pieces together. For example, in the PCMCIA subsystem, the diagrams give you the broader picture architecturally, and the code snipppets give you the minutia you'll need. 2. the fact that it is up-to-date as far as the kernel version is concerned.
3. how it resolved a lot of questions I'd had about the scheduler.
4. the really good handling of USB and the video subsystem.
It is a little light on SMP and portability issues, but overall a very good book.

I've been frustrated by many other Linux kernel and device driver books. The authors often make assumptions about the readers knowledge and gloss over areas that can be quite confusing.

To some extent, that's unavoidable: the Linux kernel is monstrous and very complex, and the hardware that drivers control can also be dark and mysterious territory.

I really appreciated this books approach. It's not that everything is explained in complete detail; that would be impossible. However, the author obviously tries very hard to give an overview, an orientation that will hopefully set your mind in the right direction, before diving into details. Throughout the book he adds "go look at this" suggestions that can help you understand whatever he's dealing with at this point.

I think Chapter 2, which is a high level fly-by of the kernel in general, is an absolute masterpiece. That starts by pulling typical kernel boot messages and explaining what they mean and what's going on in code to produce them. It then goes on to discuss kernel locks, briefly looks at procfs and memory allocation, and closes (as each chapter does) with pointers to where to look in the source for the subjects discussed.

Chapters 3 and 4 flesh out basic concepts more, and then after that the book goes into details, picking both real world and fanciful examples of hardware and giving sample device drivers. Simple devices are presented first, while later chapters get into more complicated hardware, but in each case the same general format is followed: overview of the how and why, sample driver(s), how to most easily debug, and pointers to real kernel sources.

Very well done. I have no complaints - oh, a few minor typos, maybe, but nothing serious.

This book is written in a very approachable style that starts off with a very simple software-only character driver and builds up to more complicated hardware combinations. The code fragments are C code of course, but are preceded where necessary by pseudocode to give a better idea of the underlying algorithm. Complete code is given for the drivers, but this book is not really about programming as such. It probably tells you more about hardware than most programmers ever wanted to know, unless they were asked to write a device driver- which this book presumes you are. The book is biased towards IBM PC interfacing (8250 UART, LPT1, etc) but not exclusively. More importantly the principles remain the same and the author always seeks to explain things and make you think about what is happening. Furthermore the book is based on Unix version 3 (SVR3) with particular reference to SCO Unix, with only the last chapter introducing the principles of SVR4. However streams are treated more thoroughly with separate chapters on a loop-back driver and a rewrite of the terminal driver for COM1. After a general explanation, the book is divided into chapters covering individual drivers in increasing levels of complexity. There are character drivers for a test data generator, an A/D converter, a line printer, a more complicated test data generator, a raw disk driver, and a tape driver. Block drivers cover a test data generator, RAM disk, and SCSI disk. There is a terminal driver for COM1 and streams drivers for a loop-back driver and COM1. Finally, there is a chapter on installation and one on Zen and Driver Writing. The installation chapter refers you to your system manual for specific details, but explains how device installation is meant to work. The Zen chapter is general philosophy on when to write a driver and problems in debugging. Of particular note is the assertion that it is easy to write drivers provided that you have "..a mind unbound to conventional hang-ups about determinism, causal theory, logic, and the expectation that any piece of hardware will work the way its designers described." There have been more recent books on writing device drivers for various flavors of Unix, but none is as instructive and detailed as this book. You may need an additional text on device drivers for the particular flavor of Unix you are working with, but this book is still essential.

If nothing else, the thoroughness of the example code makes this book worth the cost. The variety of exampe types (nic, ram-based fs, etc) make it all the better.

What I'm appreciating about this book is the simplicity and the vigor of the writing. It's *really* easy to make this topic sound really complicated. Pajari's approach lays out as few issues at one time as possible, then adds gradually to the mix. The early parts are not taxing, but the pace does pick up.

In teaching the subject, I often find it difficult to slow students down, and get them to confine their questions to one problem domain at a time. Device drivers have to fit into the kernel subsystem and communicate with a device through interrupts; there are LOTS of side questions people can dream up.

This book gave me a few insights into containing the discussions and forestall all that anxiety. Well worth the wait to get the book.

This book is a priceless collection in the shelf of a Device Driver writer. Whether you are writing device drivers or just want to know more about them this is the book to read. The easy-to-understand language and style adopted by the author is also an added benefit to the reader.

Mary McCarthy has never gotten her due as a prose writer and this -- her best novel -- seems to have been overlooked. This is the story of a young man 's emancipation from his very much loved mother (with whom he has an almost romantic relationship based on her attractiveness and their shared sensibility). They construct an ideal life together in which they eschew all "modern" conveniences for the niceties of the past. She remarries and he is launched as an adult, going to Paris to school, where he attempts to apply his interpretation of Kant's moral imperative to the various experiences he has (including one very funny-painful episode in which he invites a urine-soaked clochard to share his quarters). It is a completely delightful book and can be reread with pleasure. She is a master story teller.

I was so incredibly inspired by someone that truly understands Kantian ethics, and how to apply them. Mary McCarthy was obviously very well educated and intelligent, this book was so good that I was wondering why she was not a part of the literature classes that I took in college. Her very endearing and intimate writing style has me in awe. I really want to send this book to my former philosophy professor and see what he thinks. If you like a good novel and philosophy both, read this book.

I was not able to review this book because it is not available. However, it is such a good book that the anticipation of its arrival is better than Waiting for Godot.

I try to get information about WDM. But It is very hard to foreigner. This book lead to easy way to development. There a few materials on the WDM. It is hard to collect from that. This book will save troble.

i used this text book in my final year engineering project and i found it to be a very halpful book aaaamong many others that i read in my final year project design work.

I contacted the author about this title. He said although it was "listed as a coming publication" it was never completed.

I purchased this book as a complimentary book for the regular OS text books, so far the coverage is very good and helpful.

Awesome book...things are very well explained and the subject-matter is covered well. Surely recommend this book to someone!!

ULK provides well structured and clear introduction to the 2.6 linux kernel. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get started on kernel code. ULK also provides an insight into the modularity present within the kernel (eg. doubly linked list macros). Thus, it should help amateur programmers to develop strong coding skills in addition to understanding OS kernel design.

This is a great book to help you understand the linux kernel. It reads easily and helps you to not get lost inside of the details.

Prepare to have you brain melted. This book is FACINATING but not for everyone. It's EXCEEDINGLY nerdy and doesn't attempt to simplify complex nitty gritty details, and it shouldn't. This book is an excelent place to start if you want to dig deeper into the kernel itself. It would be an excelent choice to read before a book on drivers (Linux Device Drivers (Nutshell Handbook)) or low level networking Understanding Linux Network Internals) which are both also very good books.

I would give it 4 stars but it's not quite as well written as some of the other books on Free software published by O'Reilly.

It provides an efficient and valuable on hand quick reference to the industry. Depth of the content is also right for marketing and management people who need some knowledge of the field. The book is however, too simple for Electronic Engineer. On the other hand, the pictures inside are not in good resolution. Anyway, If you need an efficient reference, it save you at least several days or weeks time in browsing internet for your requested information.

There are many books on packaging, but all of them do not discuss ALL the area array packages in details. This one does! This book include BGA, CGA, CSP, FLip Chip, HDI and MEMS. What make this book so cool is that it not only mention on the making of these devices, it also includes how to use them as in assembly.

I particularly loves the the way the arthur organizes the content. Each packaging technology is covered in their own chapter. The chapter starts with an introduction and background, the materials and processes in the making of the packages, the applications and the limitations, the process, materials like solder pastes and fluxes and equipments needed to assemble these packages.

This book is design for both packaging house and Assembly house. It is also very useful for Failure Analysis guys as well as this book enables the reader to "see" the construction, and henceforth the possible weakness, of each of the packages.

All in all, this book is written for wide range of readers, from novice to R&D guys, this book covers it all.

Three competing technologies are presently battling for position in the high density microelectronics packaging arena. In this book, Ken Gilleo has corralled all three competitors - Ball Grid Array (BGA), Chip-Scale Packaging (CSP), and Flip Chip - in a single handbook that is a comprehensive reference, problem solver, and get-smart-fast source for packaging engineers, designers, production engineers, manufacturing specialists, and those from all of the other disciplines associated with microelectronics packaging.

The book brings together contributions from many of those disciplines by many talented contributors. The 38 authors include widely-known industry stars, such as Marie Cole, Dan Baldwin, Joe Fjelstad, Jennie Hwang, Wayne Johnson, Jan Vardaman, and Phil Zarrow, as well others equally expert in their own fields, if lesser known. Of course, the multi-talented Dr. Gilleo contributed several chapters, while editing the volume and riding herd on 37 cats.

The subjects covered begin with package concept and design and move through many of the intermediate stages of development and manufacture, to yields, costs, and markets. The 31 chapters are grouped into five major sections, following the flow from concept to markets.

Concepts and Design ranges in time from the pre-history of microelectronics (vacuum tubes) to the future history of packaging for current developments such as MEMS (microelectromechanical systems). After an industry overview and trends, chapters are devoted to each a wide variety of packaging, including arrays, stacked 3-dimensional, compliant ICs, and MEMS. Ken Gilleo gives a good overview of flip chip, and Marie Cole explains ceramic column grid arrays.

Materials addresses packaging ingredients. Coverage includes polymers, hermetic getters, the care and feeding of solder spheres, lead-free formulations (including their social and economic consequences), and conductive adhesives. Jennie Hwang's 59 page chapter on solder and solder paste is practically a book in itself.

Equipment and Processes is the largest section, with 11 chapters. It begins with Dan Baldwin detailing next-generation flip chip, and Wayne Johnson describing substrate design, assembly, underfills, and reliability. Rework includes chapters both for die attach rework and for BGA and CSP packages rework. Encapsulation, process development and control, and reliability have separate chapters, as do molding, screen printing and stenciling, high speed package mounting, and ovens.

Economics and Productivity begins with metrics: how to measure productivity, if any. The following chapter on cost estimating shows how to convert that productivity to profits. Both disciplines are overlooked in many texts and most companies.

Future considers the direction and destiny, both of electronic packaging and of packaging equipment, but not of the human race, and finds it pleasing. Convergences and their consequences on future packaging, and the expected evolution of SMT equipment, bring our forward-looking saga to a close.

The handbook format allows the experts to present their topics in free-standing chapters, as if they were consultants leaning over your shoulder. This format provides more practical detail than the broader but less specialized textbook format, at some sacrifice of the textbook's breadth and structure. These chapters vary in both the scope of the subject matter and in the depth of the presentation, ranging from 7 to 100 pages (mean = 24.06 pages, sigma =17.44 pages). The 400 illustrations (mean = 0.5 per page) make for easier understanding of the sometimes complex detail. Chapter-end references supply alternative sources for exploring further along these or tangential paths.

In summary, I recommend this book for gaining an understanding of the current state-of-the-art in these three packaging technologies, as an excellent reference for a wide variety of packaging topics, and as a valuable tool for solving present packaging problems and avoiding future ones.