Device Drivers

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Building Device Drivers can be a very difficult job, but is also very rewarding.
Picture of Duck-billed Platypus

The above Australian monotreme, a duck-billed platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, is an egg-laying mammal of eastern Australia. It is the only member of the family Ornithorhynchidae, order Monotremata. It has an electro sensors in its bill signal the presence of prey. It is a shy and mostly nocturnal animal, thus very few have seen one in the wild.

Like the platypus, a device driver is quite a "secretive" seldom seen component of most computer systems. It sort of lives "underneath" it all. They are the software between the engineer who designed and built the hardware, and all other software above them.

Frequently, if they STOP, or do something wrong, it can bring the whole system down. This fact also makes them quite difficult to DEBUG.