Fwd: Part 7: Innovation in Device Driver Development
It looks like we'll be getting more drivers faster :) Hopefully, they won't
have to sign NDAs or release binary-only drivers.
Mike
----- Forwarded message from Integrating_Windows_and_Unix@itw.itworld.com -----
Linux and Windows 2000 Interop, Part 7:
Innovation in Device Driver Development
By Robert Williams
Device driver development historically has been a major league headache
for both hardware product manufacturers and software developers.
Hardware manufacturers face dilemmas distributing pre-lease devices,
and providing appropriate information and support to a wide variety of
developers. Inevitably, only a small percentage of software developers
can access the equipment, and even fewer can accord proper support.
>From developers' perspectives, especially in smaller and emerging
companies, this presents a frustrating maze of roadblocks to developing
proper devices critical to their application's success.
At LinuxWorld, I encountered Tucson, Arizona-based DevelopOnline ? a
company that could revolutionize device driver development. Not
surprisingly, DevelopOnline (http://www.developonline.com) won the
award for the Best Embedded Solutions.
The DevelopOnline business model is simple but very elegant. The
company offers online access to devices and support materials. Hardware
manufacturers provide DevelopOnline with pre-lease devices and
appropriate interface information, and software developers rent online
access time to develop and test drivers. This business model provides
an equal playing field for software device driver developers and gives
easy, and relatively inexpensive, access to new equipment and
appropriate technical support. Hardware manufactures also gain with an
immediately larger acceptance and support of new products.
Go take a look at their Website; this is a real innovation!
About the author(s)
-------------------
Robert Williams, PhD is President of Enterprise Certified Corporation,
a consulting services, training, and IT professional certification
organization. He was President of professional services organization
PDS Advanced Technologies, president and founder pioneering UNIX
applications developer Decathlon Data Systems, and a senior executive
at UNISYS and System Development Corporation. He was a dean of research
at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State
Polytechnic University. He was also the featured speaker in the
international road shows sponsored by Microsoft, Hewlett Packard,
Compaq and Tech Data on UNIX and Windows NT interoperability. He is the
co-author of the best seller The Ultimate Windows 2000 System
Administrator's Guide (Addison Wesley 2000), Windows NT & UNIX:
Administration, Coexistence, Integration and Migration (Addison Wesley
1998) and other books.
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