Re: GEOS device drivers

Domenic Romeo (dom.romeo@worldnet.att.net)
Mon, 22 Jul 1996 21:39:55 -0400

Edward Ballot wrote:
>
> > Under which circumstances is it necessary to write a new device driver
> > when I have to support a new device ?
> >
> > Possibly, this question has to consider 2 cases:
> > 1. Is it possible in GEOS to access a new device (e.g. a yet unsupported
> > type of
> > PCMCIA card) without writing a device driver ?
> > If yes, under which circumstances is this possible ?
>
> This is really impossible to answer concretely. As far as I know, the
> OmniGo supports SRAM and Serial type PCMCIA cards. If your card
> conforms to one of those, then you are set. If your card doesn't,
> then you will probably need to write a device driver for it.

The OmniGo does have supports for another type of RAM, ATA Flash RAM. Altough not
advertized, it does work. I just got an 4M ATA Flash Pretec card and it works
great! (No need to load anything extra, just plug it in) If you look in the PCMCIA
dir, you will notice some ATA stuff.

>
> > 2. When is it possible to utilize an existing device driver for support
> > of new device
> > which is similar to some already supported device.
> > I assume that the answer to this question is more complex, but has a
> > - general part, and
> > - a device class specific part
> > If so I would be interested to learn about the general part, and the
> > specific part for
> > PCMCIA cards.
>
> If the device is similar to an already existing device, then "yes" it
> will probably work with an existing device driver. If it is radically
> different, then it will require a new device driver. What you need to
> do is look at the drivers in the SYSTEM directory and determine
> whether any of those will work with your device.
>
> -Ed-

Dom