Communication Drivers

Communication drivers tend to become large blocks of code. This is due to the complexity of the protocols developed for many hardware devices. The VTS side of the equation is usually quite straight-forward, but it often happens that a large number of subroutines will be required to handle all the details of a driver’s protocol.

This chapter describes the software design process as it applies to the creation of communication drivers in VTS. It is organized as follows:

•      The first few topics present the fundamental concepts of how VTS implements a communication driver. If you have not written a driver before, start with Communication Driver Fundamentals.

•      The requirements for a custom communication driver are provided, with an emphasis on what information you should gather before beginning to write code. See: Communication Driver Design.

•      A step-by-step description of how to create a communication driver is provided, followed by detailed information on the mandatory and optional components of a driver. See: Writing a Communication Driver.

•      A template for a simple driver is presented as an example. All hardware-specific code has been removed from this example, leaving only the VTS components. See: Communication Driver Template.

•      A reference section is provided, starting at The VTSDriver API, and including:

•      The API of the built-in module, VTSDriver.

•      Details on how driver information is distributed through a networked application.

•      Rules for writing a driver.

•      Information about tools for driver diagnostics and statistics gathering. See: Driver Diagnostic Tools.

•      Instructions for installing and using a driver are given at the end of this chapter.  If you have been given the code for a new driver, and are simply looking for the steps to add it to your application, you can skip ahead to the section: Install a New Driver (Example: GE 9030 SNP Driver).