WDM Device Driver Development for Windows Operating Systems

Overview
The course covers the key aspects of the device driver architecture of the Microsoft Windows operating systems, device driver development using the DDK and strategies for designing and implementing device drivers.
This is a taught lab course with heavy emphasis on practical lab work. The split between teaching and lab work is abour 40% teaching and 60% lab work. Although the formal course hours are from 9.00 am to 5 p.m there will be opportunities to work later (till about 7 p.m., apart from the last day)

Course Contents
Overview of the various Microsoft Operating Systems

• structure of Windows operating systems

Kernel mode components Overview of the registry, the Setup API and Important Registry Keys for Device Driver Developers Overview of Plug'n Play Device Installation

• .INF files
• Class installers
• Class coinstallers
• Device coinstallers

Overview of the structure and patterns of driver routines

• Driver data structures
  • Driver Object
  • Device Object
  • Device Extension
• Buffered I/O vs. Direct I/O
• Packet driven I/O and I/O request packets (IRPs)
• Virtual Memory Management issues
• Mechanisms supporting Plug'n Play
• Device Tree and Driver Layering
• Device Object
  • Physical Device Object (PDO)
  • Functional Device Object (FDO)
  • Filter Device Object (FIDO)
• State Transitions of the Plug'n Play framework in the context of developing WDM drivers

Access Plug'n Play Hardware Resources using HAL and System Busdriver How the Interrupt Architecture fits in with Thread Scheduling

• IRQL_PASSIVE_LEVEL
• IRQL_DISPATCH_LEVEL
• DIRQL

Interrupt Service Routines Deferred Procedure Calls (DPCs) Synchronisation Mechanisms

• Spinlocks and SMP architectures
• Executive Spinlocks and Interrupt Spinlocks
• Dispatcher Objects
• Executive Resources
• IRP Queues
• IRP Cancellation and Cancel Safe IRP Queues

Power Management

• Overview of power management strategies
• The Microsoft approach to power management
• System Power States
• Device Power States
• Power Policy Owner