Introduction to User-Mode Driver Framework

Outline
What is UMDF? When should I use UMDF? When shouldnt I use UMDF? What does UMDF give me?
What kind of drivers can I write? What can my drivers do?

What next?

Goals
How UMDF fits into WDF Understand UMDFs capabilities

Current Driver Models

Windows has several different driver models
Windows Driver Model (WDM) is the generic model Specific driver models for popular devices classes
Storage, Networking, Printing, Imaging, etc... Some built on top of WDM. Others run as user-mode services.

WDM Features
Asynchronous, packet-based I/O I/O Cancellation Layering of drivers Dynamic loading and unloading of drivers Plug and Play & Power management Low-level high-performance interfaces

WDM Advantages
Large device coverage Flexible

Limitations with Current Models

Generic driver model (WDM) is too complex
Focuses on very advanced drivers which punishes simple ones Poor DDI design

Device specific models have complexity of their own

Often this bubbles through from WDM Developer trapped in device-specific model Poor knowledge transfer from one to the next

Many drivers must be written in kernel mode

Even though much functionality could be user mode

Developers spend too much time driving our software

Cannot concentrate on driving their hardware Driver quality suffers as a result

Do not allow extension and future growth

Overview of Current Driver Models

Device/Driver Classes
Display Adapters Storage Adapters (SCSI & ATA) Network Adapters Video Capture Audio Adapters File System filters Printers Scanners,Cameras Video port SCSIport, Storport, ATAport, NDIS AvStream AVStream, PortCls FS Mini filter UniDrv WIA

Current Model

PCI, PC Card, generic filter drivers

Modems, Cable Modem Biometric Devices Smart Card Devices Keyboard/Mouse Filters

WDM
WDM & NDIS WDM WDM WDM WDM

Legacy Devices (Serial, Parallel)

Portable Media Players UPnP & Network Connected Devices, Cell Phones USB, 1394, Bluetooth, SD devices Others

WDM
WMDM No support WDM (kernel), no support (user) WDM

Windows Driver Foundation

We need a new generic driver model that ...
Scales conceptually from simple to extremely complex drivers Can be extended to domain specific models Can be validated at compile-time as well as run-time

Windows Driver Foundation (WDF) consists of

A generic driver model Implementations of that model
Kernel Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) User Mode Driver Framework (UMDF)

Driver Verification Tools

Static Driver Verifier PREfast for Drivers

Windows Driver Foundation Goals

Simplicity
No harder than it needs to be to accomplish a task

Fast time to market for drivers

Let driver developers focus on their domain, not ours

Reduce crashes and blue screens due to drivers

Better customer experience helps everyone

Provide complete driver development experience

Develop and test
Built-in diagnosability, tracing, verification tools

Deployment and Install

Support versioning

Windows Driver Foundation- Experience

Overview of Current (User) Driver Models

Device/Driver Classes
Display Adapters Storage Adapters (SCSI & ATA) Network Adapters Video Capture Audio Adapters File System filters Printers Scanners,Cameras Video port SCSIport, Storport, ATAport, NDIS AvStream AVStream, PortCls FS Mini filter UniDrv WIA

Current Model

PCI, PC Card, generic filter drivers

Modems, Cable Modem Biometric Devices Smart Card Devices Keyboard/Mouse Filters

WDM
WDM & NDIS WDM WDM WDM WDM

Legacy Devices (Serial, Parallel)

Portable Media Players UPnP & Network Connected Devices, Cell Phones USB, 1394, Bluetooth, SD devices Others

WDM
WMDM No support WDM (kernel), no support (user) WDM

Why Build a User-Mode Framework?

Difficult to provide high-quality drivers
Crash statistics prove this WDF Framework makes drivers easier to write

Lots of driver models already live in user space

Printers, Audio, Imaging Divergent driver models has become a problem UMDF brings general-purpose model into user-mode

General UMDF provides:

Unified facilities Support for WDF model

What is UMDF?
Implementation of the WDF Driver Model Provides ...
The infrastructure to run a device driver in user-mode The WDF I/O Pipeline and PnP/PM State Machine The core WDF objects
Devices, Files, Queues, Requests, I/O Targets, etc...

UMDF and KMDF both share the WDF Model

So learning how to use one will apply to the other But they are not source or binary compatible
Have similar but not identical DDIs Each has additional functionality applicable to its domain

Overview of the Architecture

Driver Manager

UM UM driver driver Framework Framework Host Process

CoInstaller

User Kernel

Reflector

Kernel Driver
... Kernel Driver

Provided by:
Microsoft ISV IHV

Device Stack

Who Should Use UMDF?

Existing driver developers
Who want to move drivers to user space Who already have the driver mindset

New driver developers

Coming from application development Who need to provide device support Who are learning new skills

Anyone who wants to...

Build a driver without a lot of development overhead Reduce the risks associated with traditional drivers Stop causing blue screens

Where can you use UMDF?

Primary Scenarios
Protocol Bus devices
Devices attached to USB, 1394, TCP/IP, etc...

Software-only drivers
Filter drivers, virtualized serial port, etc

Current Devices
Portable Media Players, Cell Phones, PDAs/ActiveSync, Auxiliary Display, Cameras

Future Devices
Devices on future protocol busses Devices where driver can be split into ...
Small kernel-mode component to do hardware access Larger user-mode driver to provide complex functionality

When and How To Use UMDF

UMDF is a standard Windows codenamed Longhorn feature
Support in WDK

Build with the WDK Build Environment

Standard device driver build environment No integration with Visual Studio

Why Use UMDF?

Uses the WDF Driver Model
Can learn a single model that applies to KM and UM drivers

Faster development cycle

Easier debugging on a single machine Crashes during development dont require a reboot

Access to user-mode services

Win32 file I/O, Function Discovery, WINSOCK, RPC, Crypto But you have to be careful

Why Use UMDF?

Improved stability
User-Mode Drivers are isolated from other drivers Kernel is isolated from user-mode drivers

Increased security
Compromised driver does not crash the system Lower privileges restrain a compromised driver

Recoverability
System can recover after a driver crash no blue-screens The driver can be restarted without rebooting

Kernel-Mode or User-Mode Driver?

You must use kernel mode when you: Need direct hardware access, for example,
Require DMA Must handle interrupts Need access to device registers

Have strict timing requirements

UMDF will have increased latency

Need kernel-only resources

Or kernel components need access to your driver

Features You Can Use in Your Driver

General WDF capabilities
PnP/PM provides opt-in callbacks for various events Object model has context management & flow control I/O Targets allow driver to send new I/O requests
Regardless of where the target device driver is running Coordinated with cancellation and cleanup

Escape to Win32 and user-mode services Standard facilities for Windows I/O model
PnP Device Discovery Synchronous & Asynchronous I/O with Cancellation Buffered and Direct I/O transfers

Standard INF Driven setup

Common Concerns
Will a user-mode driver be fast enough?
UMDF driver can already flood a portable media device
UMDF may increase latency, but throughput remains high

Performance is one of our top priorities But its not always the top priority for driver developers
Balanced with improvements in quality, stability, security, etc...

Will a user-mode driver be secure?

As secure as any other user-mode service
RPC, LSASS, WinLogon, etc...

A compromised user-mode driver is more contained

Cannot crash the system or expose kernel secrets

Will user-mode drivers be high quality drivers?

Well continue to push to improve driver quality in all models UMDF will prevent badly behaved drivers from crashing the system

Whats Next?
Development platform is the WDK/LDK Currently allows developing drivers for Longhorn But we know thats not enough
Plan to support Windows XP in Longhorn time-frame

Versioning support
Support for side-by-side installation

Beta program
Windows Driver Foundation Beta Program Invitation
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/wdf/beta.mspx

Call To Action
Install the Windows Driver Kit Join the WDF Beta Program
At http://beta.microsoft.com Guest ID: Guest4WDF

Evaluate UMDF for your driver projects

Consider development time, customer support for system crashes, etc.

Send Us Feedback - We want to know

If UMDF will meet your needs What stops you from writing your drivers with UMDF Email: umdffdbk @ microsoft.com

Additional Resources
Web Resources:
WDF Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/wdf/default.mspx

Windows Debugger:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx

External Resources
Introduction to the Windows Driver Foundation: How To Develop Device Drivers Using the Kernel Mode Driver Framework from OSR Press
Release date is September 2005 Focuses on KMDF but provides general WDF information as well

 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.