Linux operating system

Author: Ruby Lee
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-04-01
Features: To read and appreciate this book, you do not need to be a kernel hacker. What you need is just a background in the C language and some Unix system calls. This book explains character devices, block devices, and network interface drivers in a step-by-step manner, providing fully functional example drivers. These example drivers illustrate many issues and solutions in driver design and can run without any specific hardware. The significant revisions in the second edition of this book include discussions on symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems and locking mechanisms, as well as updates on new CPUs and recently supported buses, among others. The intended readers of this book are those who want to support various computer peripherals under the Linux operating system or those who want to develop new hardware and run it on Linux. Linux is the fastest-growing segment of the Unix market and has gained widespread support in many application areas. Now, it is increasingly recognized that Linux is an excellent platform for embedded systems, and the second edition of this book has become a classic in the field. The author has elevated the previously oral experiences and knowledge, or implicit source code comments, into a systematic guide on various methods for writing device drivers. The Linux kernel version 2.4 brought significant changes to device driver literature, simplifying many tasks while providing numerous refined new features that make drivers more efficient and flexible. The second edition of this book thoroughly explains these changes and introduces many new processor and bus architectures.