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From the Editor
Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn introduce a number of changes that might affect drivers that were created for the earlier versions of Windows. With the February Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of Windows Vista, driver developers can begin evaluating their current drivers and installation packages under Windows Vista.
To supplement the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) and other tools that are now available for driver developers, we have published a white paper on the WHDC Web site to give you an early preview of Driver Compatibility Issues for Windows Vista. This draft paper summarizes some of the changes in Windows Vista that affect driver installation, loading, run time, and functionality. The paper provides pointers to information that developers can use to update their drivers to work properly in Windows Vista. We will update this paper frequently as new information becomes available.
In addition, the checked kernel and HAL images, and the related PDB files, are provided in the February CTP release of the WDK. Look for these in the \debug directory. Symbols for Windows Vista are also available for MSDN subscribers. Just set the symbol path in the WinDbg debugger. Begin your driver testing now--and please be sure to provide feedback as described for beta testers and MSDN Operating System subscribers.
– Annie Pearson
for the WHDC team
WHDC After Dark:
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8.62m of Calamari: The science blogs are all squirming with delight over this discovery. Be sure to watch the video.
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Device and System Design for Windows
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A Fibre Channel (FC) storage area network (SAN) has many components, such as servers and FC host bus adapters (HBAs), switches, hubs, and storage. The SAN topology is the graph that describes how these components are cabled together. This new paper on the WHDC Web site presents several examples that explain how to use the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interfaces for Windows HBA API through Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) to discover a SAN topology.
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Under imperfect conditions, a single microphone that is embedded in a laptop or monitor does a poor job of capturing sound. An array of microphones can do a much better job of isolating a sound source and rejecting ambient noise and reverberation. This new paper on the WHDC Web site provides guidelines for manufacturers and developers to create integrated or external microphone arrays for Windows Vista systems.
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System sleep and wake performance improvements in Windows Vista reduce the time needed to cold boot or wake a computer from the Standby and Hibernate sleep states (ACPI power states S3 and S4, respectively). This new paper on the WHDC Web site provides information about measuring system resume from Standby performance on computers running Windows Vista, with examples and tips for supporting fast system resume performance in Windows drivers.
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New notes from the Windows Base Team describe the work that has been done in Windows Vista to simplify power management settings for the user while gaining maximum energy savings. These notes describe how applications and drivers can take advantage of these changes, plus details on how to integrate software capabilities with the Windows Power Manager.
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Kernel-Mode Driver Framework
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In a Windows Driver Foundation (WDF) driver, every WDFREQUEST object is associated with one or more WDFMEMORY objects and each such WDFMEMORY object represents a buffer in memory. What are the lifetimes of these objects, and how should your driver use them? Check this new KMDF driver tip on the WHDC Web site.
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In a recent NTDev discussion ( hosted by OSR Online), the wise rules-of-thumb for driver design offered by experts were (1) don’t write a driver or, if you must, (2) create a user-mode driver. Peter Wieland, the Development Lead for the User-Mode Driver Framework, talks about Windows device drivers in his new blog: "…the things that confused me as a starting developer, the things that I get questions about frequently, the things that I love about it and the things which drive me absolutely nuts."
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WinHEC 2006 Agenda and Session Details
The new WinHEC agenda provides the details that you need to design innovative hardware products and build drivers for Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn. Plan your daily schedule in advance to get the most value from your time at WinHEC.
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Edition for  March 7, 2006 |
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Events
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WinHEC 2006
May 23-26, 2006
Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Seattle, WA
Registration is now open--register before March 27 and save $300! |
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Intel Developer Forum
March 7-9, 2006
San Francisco, California |
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CeBIT 2006
March 9-15, 2006
Hannover, Germany |
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USTA TelecomNEXT
March 22-26, 2006
Mandalay Bay Convention Center
Las Vegas, NV |
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IEC 21st Century Communications World Forum
March 27-30, 2006
Business Design Centre
London, Great Britain |
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Microsoft Management Summit 2006
April 24-28, 2006
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA |
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Certified Wireless USB Developers Conference
June 20-22, 2006
San Jose, CA |
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