Updates to EDR Enhanced Linux Software Development Kit
The Linux software development kit is
currently undergoing a great revamp.
The idea is to provide a universal solution to all Linux distributions,
although all development is done on the Fedora Core. Drivers
are being updated to utilize the latest kernel support for
Plug and Play, PCI interface and USB interface. The kernel
driver model has also become stricter providing a good platform
and reference to develop new drivers, or port older ones.
Current development is done for Linux
Kernel Release 2.6.9 All drivers are ported to support
the driver model as set out by the documentation accompanying
this kernel release. It also includes support for Hotplug
(http://linux-hotplug. sourceforge.net) and udev to automatically
manage device nodes found under the /dev directory. The validity
of the nodes are essential in the to ensure the EDR Enhanced
application interface communicating to an actual installed
device and not just a stale node.
To fully support hotplug the driver needs to
create a new sys class called
EDREDAQ, which will be a collective class for all EDREDAQ
devices, with a list of
sub-devices for each device that is installed. Each sub-device
will contain a few
files exporting the device node number, major and minor, the
device serial
number and device name. The device node number is important
for udev to
be able to establish the node name under /dev. By making use
of these
services the full Plug-and-Play ability of Linux is utilized.
Current drivers under development are
the PCI703 driver, the PCI800 driver,
the PCI76x driver and the USB MicroDAQ driver. All drivers
should be ready for release by the end of March 2005.
The new drivers will also be accompanied
by a new integrated kernel
configuration script support. This will ensure that
the drivers can be fully
integrated into the kernel configuration system. The driver
makefiles can be
used as local makefiles or by the kernel build process.
The EDR Enhanced API has been updated
with full support for device objects.
A device class can be exported to gain direct control over
a specific device.
This is extremely useful for sub-classing a device’s
functionality. Examples are provided as reference or starting
point for this type of implementation.
EDR Enhanced Linux SDK version
1.3 will be released in April 2005
containing driver updates, API updates and new installation
scripts.
More documentation and examples will also be available.
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