Requirement characteristics for kernel services of Linux device drivers

MAO Junjie; CHEN Yu

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Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology) ›› 2015, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (8) : 911-915.

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Requirement characteristics for kernel services of Linux device drivers

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Abstract

Reuse of Linux device drivers allows new operating systems to be deployed over a wider range of hardware platforms. However, there are few tools to help developers reuse device drivers due to the lack of a thorough understanding of the requirement characteristics for kernel services by device drivers. The source codes of 271 device drivers in 6 categories were analyzed to identify their required kernel services. The results show that the drivers prefer generic interfaces over specialized ones. In addition, drivers in the same category have similar requirements while drivers in different categories do not. The conclusions will guide the reuse of Linux device drivers and the design of tools to help developers reuse drivers.

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device drivers / requirement characteristics / code analysis

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MAO Junjie, CHEN Yu. Requirement characteristics for kernel services of Linux device drivers[J]. Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology). 2015, 55(8): 911-915

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