Design Goals for Kernel-Mode Drivers

Kernel-mode drivers share many of the design goals of the operating system, particularly those of the system I/O manager. Kernel-mode drivers are designed to be:

• Portable from one platform to another.

• Configurable to various hardware and software platforms.

• Always preemptible and always interruptible.

• Multiprocessor-safe on multiprocessor platforms.

• Object-based.

• Packet-driven I/O with reusable IRPs.

• Capable of supporting asynchronous I/O.