Modelling of device driver software by reflection of the device hardware structure

Abstract

Embedded systems are highly optimised to operate in the physical world they are embedded to. Hence, dedicated peripheral devices are designed which need support by a device driver to raise the level of abstraction for the application programmer. Even with methods of hardware/software co-design, devices and drivers are still designed by two designer groups. This paper depicts a systematic approach to design the coarse grained structure of the device driver by reflection and mapping of the internal structure of the device hardware. Even though common operating systems are programmed in a functional programming language, means of object-oriented programming languages and design pattern are applied.