The Kernel-Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) is a driver framework developed by Microsoft as a tool to aid driver developers create and maintain

kernel mode In computer science, hierarchical protection domains, often called protection rings, are mechanisms to protect data and functionality from faults (by improving fault tolerance) and malicious behavior (by providing computer security). Comput ...

device drivers for

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officia ...

and later releases. It is one of the frameworks included in the

Windows Driver Frameworks Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF, formerly Windows Driver Foundation), is a set of Microsoft tools and libraries that aid in the creation of device drivers for Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows. It complements Windows Driver Model, abstrac ...

.Kernel Mode Driver Framework for Windows 7 Drivers
/ref> The current version is 1.27.

Relationship to WDM

In general, KMDF supports drivers that were written for the

Windows Driver Model In computing, the Windows Driver Model (WDM) also known at one point as the Win32 Driver Model is a framework for device drivers that was introduced with Windows 98 and Windows 2000 to replace VxD, which was used on older versions of Windows such ...

, and it runs on WDM. WDM is the driver model used since the advent of Windows 98, whereas KMDF is the driver framework Microsoft advocates and uses for Windows 2000 and beyond. In general, since more features like

power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power ...

and

plug and play In computing, a plug and play (PnP) device or computer bus is one with a specification that facilitates the recognition of a hardware component in a system without the need for physical device configuration or user intervention in resolving res ...

are handled by the KMDF framework, a KMDF driver is less complicated and has less code than an equivalent WDM driver. KMDF is object-based and built on top of WDM. It provides an object-based perspective to WDM, following the architectural mandate of its superset, WDF. The functionality is contained in different types of objects. KMDF implementation consists of: *

and

* I/O queues *

Direct memory access Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer systems and allows certain hardware subsystems to access main system memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU). Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed input/output, it is ...

(DMA) *

Windows Management Instrumentation Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) consists of a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification. WMI is Microsoft's impl ...

(WMI) *

Synchronization Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said to be synchrono ...

Notes

References

External links

Windows Driver KitKernel-Mode Driver Framework HomepageMicrosoft KMDF Paper
{{Microsoft FOSS Device drivers Free and open-source software Microsoft application programming interfaces Microsoft free software Software using the MIT license Windows-only free software

Relationship to WDM

See also

Notes

References

External links