Intel EK-KZPCM-UG manual Windows NT Installation, SYMC8XX.SYS Miniport Driver Description

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Windows NT Installation

This chapter describes briefly the SYMC8XX.SYS miniport driver that enables the KZPCM Host Adapter to work with the Windows NT operating system, version 4.0, and tells you how to install the driver in the host computer.

4.1SYMC8XX.SYS Miniport Driver Description

The Windows NT operating system, version 4.0, is designed to run on processors using Intel and RISC technology. The operating system provides a graphical user interface environment, without DOS, incorporating many high-level features. I/O requests in Windows NT 4.0 are handled by an I/O manager. To address a SCSI peripheral the I/O manager goes through the appropriate drivers. Class drivers for hard disk, optical, CD-ROM, printer, and scanner peripherals are provided in Windows NT 4.0. Other class drivers, provided by peripheral manufacturers, are added to support new devices. Tape device support is built into the operating system itself and does not require a class driver. The SYMC8XX.SYS miniport driver is added to complete the path from the Windows NT operating system to the KZPCM Host Adapter.

The driver is designed to meet Microsoft specifications for miniport drivers. SCSI commands are passed directly from a Windows application to the SCSI devices by using the SCSI pass-through facility. This facility allows applications to control and access SCSI devices directly by filling in a data structure and calling into the port driver.

The SYMC8XX.SYS driver supports Fast 20/Ultra SCSI protocol, providing twice the raw data transfer rate of Fast SCSI for disk drives and host adapters that support Fast 20/Ultra SCSI. However, Fast 20/Ultra SCSI has more stringent SCSI bus cabling requirements than Fast SCSI. The SYMC8XX.SYS driver supports:

∙Synchronous negotiation (including Fast/Ultra SCSI)

∙Wide negotiation

∙Tagged command queuing

∙Multiple host adapters

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