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ZFIOGD -- FIO device driver for binary graphics devices.
Note: this code is part of library LIBSYS.
The purpose of this driver is to provide a low level i/o interface to the
interactive binary graphics devices supported on a particular system. This
includes devices such as image displays and bit mapped vector graphics devices
(e.g., the Versatec plotters). The ZFIOGD driver is not intended for graphics
devices with a text interface, e.g., the Tektronix compatible graphics
terminals. A third interface, i.e., the ZFIOPL driver, is used for devices
accessed via the NCAR system plot package.
By using a ZFIO level driver to talk to the binary graphics devices we can
isolate the system dependencies of the interface to a small amount of code.
We gain the ability to access the device over the network, since the kernel
server can be used once the i/o interface to the device is part of the kernel.
The ZFIOGD driver is implemented in LIBSYS rather than LIBOS since the
interface code, while system dependent, is generally written at least partially
in SPP to access header files shared with the GIO graphics kernel for the
device, as well as to gain access to the LIBSYS library functions for ease
of coding. ZFIOGD is used only by the graphics kernels hence is not needed
to bootstrap the system; it is added to LIBSYS after the system is up and
running.
The code is made as follows:
[1] In a bootstrap, the commands in the mkpkg.csh file are executed by
the root mkpkg.csh file in host$.
[2] In a sysgen, the mkpkg file in this directory is called by an entry
in sys$mkpkg to to update the libsys.a library.
ARCHITECTURE
The single FIO device driver ZFIOGD is used to access all binary graphics
devices. This simplifies the KI and VOS interfaces and maximally isolates
knowledge of the devices supported on a particular system. New devices can
be added to ZFIOGD without any changes to the kernel interface or the VOS.
When a device is opened via the ZFIOGD driver the name of the device is
specified as follows:
node!device:hostdevname
e.g.,
lyra!iis,/dev/iis
vela!iis,iia0
where
device identifies the bottom level driver to be used
hostdevname is the host system name for the particular
device to be accessed (there may be
multiple copies of a device on a single
system)
The task of ZOPNGD is to look up device name in an internal table and call
the appropriate lower level device open procedure to physically open the
device. If the device resides on a remote node the kernel interface will
have have spawned a remote kernel server which will call ZOPNGD on the host
which actually owns the device.
ZFIOGD
iism7X deanza peritek versatec (etc.)
The ZFIOGD interface is a data driven interface, i.e., all control and status
readback functions are performed by ZARDGD and ZAWRGD calls to read and write
binary packets of data. This is ideal for a device such as the IIS which is
also data driven, but is less convenient for devices which have a control
type interface (in a control type interface, a subroutine is called to do
something to the device, rather than writing to the device). Even when the
device is control driven at the host system level, a data driven interface is
desirable to isolate the system dependence of the OS device driver, as well
as to provide network access.
PROTOCOLS
When building a ZFIOGD sub-driver for a control driven device, it is
suggested that a control packet be defined for the device which is capable
of encoding all control functions. The high level code (GIO graphics device
driver) will encode control functions in this packet (which should have a
machine independent external representation), and send it along via ZAWRGD
to the sub-kernel, which will decode the packet and poke the host system device
driver as necessary to perform the indicated function.
There is no predefined protocol for encoding control packets for binary
graphics devices. Conceivably such an interface could be defined, but our
goal with the ZFIOGD interface is to isolate the host system dependence of
the interface and provide network access capabilities; we are NOT trying to
address the problems of device independence in this interface. That is the
function of the GIO device driver, which should be machine independent and
portable, but addresses the problems of providing a device independent
interface.
A control packet and communications protocol should therefore be defined
separately for each device. One possibility is to use the OFFSET argument
in the ZAWRGD call as a function code, rather than placing the function code
in a generic packet header. This is possible since the OFFSET argument is not
used for streaming devices. The only disadvantage to using the OFFSET field
in this way is that doing so would prevent use of FIO to buffer i/o to the
device, since FIO always sets OFFSET to zero when calling ZAWRGD for a
streaming device. The alternative is the generic packet approach, wherein
each i/o or control operation is preceded by a packet defining the operation
to be performed (this can simplify the interface, since a single set of
subroutines can be used to encode/transmit and receive/decode packet headers).
Yet another possibilty is to combine the two approaches, using a generic
packet header for most operations, but a special "offset" or function code
for special operations such as master clear or device reset (as well as to
reset the communications protocol).
See the send/receive procedures in the KI (kernel interface) for an example
of how to encode packets in a machine independent form for transmission over
the network.
ADDING NEW DEVICES
To add a new device to ZFIOGD, create a subdirectory with the name of the
device and implement the six driver subroutines therein. Add an entry to the
mkpkg to compile the new subdirectory. Add a new entry to the device table
and to each switch-case statement in zfiogd.x. Relink all affected graphics
executables, and relink the kernel server executable.
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