Getting to grips with device driver development

This workshop introduces the fundamental principles of interfacing with hardware in an embedded system, including an overview of device drivers. It discusses plenty of essential practical techniques along with traps for the unwary and how to avoid them.

The aim of the session is to de-mystify what can be considered a black art for those who have little or no experience of hardware interfacing. It includes demonstrations on an embedded target system.

Agenda

Hardware Basics
- what can software see?
- address mapping and decoding
- hardware documentation

Accessing Hardware from C
- techniques for memory-mapped access
- register manipulation
- shared memory
- traps and pitfalls

Interrupt Handling
- what are interrupts? when and why are they used?
- interrupt processing
- interrupt handling in C
- traps and pitfalls

Device Drivers
- purpose of device drivers
- device driver structure and components
- typical development process

Key Takeaways

• Understand how to interface with hardware from a software program in an embedded system
• The principles of how hardware devices interact with software
• Practical techniques for accessing hardware and handling interrupts from a C program
• What a device driver does and what it typically consists of
• The methods typically used to develop device drivers

Note, you should have a sound knowledge of the C/C++ programming language, and an understanding of basic hardware operation, but the audience level is classed as 'introductory'.