Messages in this thread | | | From | Peter Chubb <> | Date | Thu, 11 Dec 2003 15:01:49 +1100 | Subject | Re: Driver API (was Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause?) |
| |
>>>>> "Hannu" == Hannu Savolainen <hannu@opensound.com> writes:
Hannu> Even better would be a proper device driver ABI for "loosely Hannu> integrated" device drivers.
One of the things we're working on here is an ABI to allow device drivers to live in user space, by enabling access to interrupts and PCI DMA. Now that NPTL and fast system calls are available, it's possible to write, say, an IDE driver, that performs almost as well as (and in some cases better than) the in-kernel driver.
Developing and tuning drivers out-of-kernel is *much* easier than developing a module that lives in the kernel. Also, bugs in an out-of-kernel driver are much less likely to affect the rest of the kernel (although screwing up the SG-list you pass to the device can do it)
Sound drivers would be ideal to move out of the kernel entirely, and there's a student here working on that.
I'll be talking about some of this work at LCA2004, and intend to release the code then too.
-- Dr Peter Chubb http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au peterc AT gelato.unsw.edu.au The technical we do immediately, the political takes *forever* - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |