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I/O Kit Family Reference

This appendix describes each of the I/O Kit families in detail, paying particular attention to client/provider relationships. For most families, it provides a class hierarchy chart. It also tells you if a family exports a device interface, thereby allowing applications to access devices represented by the family. You should seriously consider taking the device-interface approach before attempting to write a kernel-resident driver. For information on using device interfaces, see the document Accessing Hardware From Applications.

Some categories of devices are not currently supported by an I/O Kit family. If your device falls into an unsupported category, you might be able to write a “family-less” driver, use an SDK other than the I/O Kit, or create a new family. See “Devices Without I/O Kit Families” for details.

You may find it helpful to examine the source code for an I/O Kit family or a specific device driver. To do this, visit Darwin Releases, select the appropriate version of Mac OS X, and click Source to view the available source projects.

Contents:

ADB
ATA and ATAPI
Audio
FireWire
Graphics
HID
Network
PC Card
PCI and AGP
SBP-2
SCSI Parallel
SCSI Architecture Model
Serial
Storage
USB
Devices Without I/O Kit Families

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