Technical data

7
Device Support on OpenVMS Systems
This chapter contains release notes pertaining to OpenVMS device support on
Alpha and VAX systems. Where appropriate, section headings indicate whether
specific notes contain Alpha-specific or VAX-specific information.
7.1 Recompiling and Relinking OpenVMS Device Drivers
The following sections contain release notes pertaining to recompiling and
relinking OpenVMS device drivers.
7.1.1 Possible Per-Threads Security Impacts Alpha Device Drivers
V7.2
Refer to Section 6.21.3 for information about how possible per-thread security
impacts OpenVMS Alpha device drivers.
7.1.2 Alpha and VAX SCSI Device Drivers
V7.3
OpenVMS Engineering recommends that all OpenVMS Alpha SCSI device drivers
from previous versions of OpenVMS must be recompiled and relinked to run
correctly on OpenVMS Version 7.3.
If you have an OpenVMS Alpha SCSI driver that you are upgrading from a
version prior to OpenVMS Alpha 7.0, see Section 7.1.3.
Note that for OpenVMS Version 7.1 all OpenVMS Alpha and VAX SCSI device
drivers required recompiling and relinking. OpenVMS VAX device drivers that
were recompiled and relinked to run on OpenVMS Version 7.1 will run correctly
on OpenVMS Version 7.3.
7.1.3 OpenVMS Alpha Device Drivers
V7.1
Device drivers that were recompiled and relinked to run on OpenVMS Alpha
Version 7.0 do not require source-code changes and do not have to be recompiled
and relinked to run on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.1 and later. (Note that
Alpha SCSI drivers, however, must be recompiled and relinked as described in
Section 7.1.2.)
Device drivers from releases prior to OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.0 that were not
recompiled and relinked for OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.0 must be recompiled and
relinked to run on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.1 and later.
OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.0 included significant changes to OpenVMS Alpha
privileged interfaces and data structures. As a result of these changes, device
drivers from releases prior to OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.0 may also require
source-code changes to run correctly on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.0 and later.
For more details about OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.0 changes that may require
Device Support on OpenVMS Systems 7–1