Specifications

9-1
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Chapter 9Understanding the Kernel Environment
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This chapter describes the role of device drivers within the kernel and gives an overview of
various system files, structures, and kernel support routines that a driver programmer must
understand in order to develop a device driver.
Overview of the Kernel I/O Structure and Flow of Control 9
This section provides an overview of the kernel I/O structure, the role of device drivers in
the kernel, the interface between processes and the I/O subsystem, and the interfaces
between the kernel and device drivers, and device drivers and hardware.
The kernel I/O structure and flow of control are shown in Figure 9-1.