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Driver Catalog Data

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The following table shows the Catalog data for each device driver. The Driver Updater uses this information to select the appropriate drivers for your platform.

Catalog field Use Description
<Component type GUID> Required. In Platform Builder 3.0, the component type GUID was not important. Effective with version 4.0, if you are creating a standard driver, you must use the component type GUID associated with that driver. For example, to add a display driver to the Catalog, you must use the type GUID from the Display.cec file. The BSP Wizard helps with this process by prompting you to select a component type for any drivers added with the wizard.

Each component type maps to a GUID for that specific class of driver.
RequiredCEModules Required. Strings from the CE_MODULES environment variable that indicate which Windows CE modules are required for a specific display type. For example, display drivers must contain the strings "display" and "device". The IDE uses this field to identify an item as a driver and the driver updater uses it to determine whether the current configuration supports this driver. If you are using a standard driver type GUID, this field is filled in automatically.

The RequiredCEModules field is associated with a component type.
ExcludeWhenSet Strongly recommended. The exclusion variables. For example, the exclusion variable for display drivers is BSP_NODISPLAY. The driver updater uses these variables to determine whether to exclude a specific driver. If you are using a standard driver type GUID, this field is filled in automatically.

The ExcludeWhenSet field is associated with a component type.
MaxResolvedImpsAllowed Optional.

Default = 1.

 The maximum number of implementations this driver supports. This tells Platform Builder whether to enforce exclusivity on this driver type.

Platform Builder supports two values for this field:

  • 1, meaning that only one driver of this type can be in your platform at a time.
  • Not 1, meaning that the driver type supports more than one implementation.

If the value is set to 1 and you attempt to add another implementation of this driver type to your platform, Platform Builder displays a dialog box to determine whether to swap the current driver with the new driver.

If the value is set to some number other than 1, you can add as many drivers of this type as you want.

As before, if you use a standard driver type, this field is set automatically.

For standard drivers that support multiple implementations, the driver updater uses the value 999.

The MaxResolvedImpsAllowed field is associated with a component type.
ImplSize Optional.

Default = 0.

 The size field associated with a specific driver. This tells Platform Builder the approximate size, in bytes, that this driver occupies in the final image. The size field should be set based on the size of the image in a retail build of a CEPC. The CPUSizeMultiplier field associated with a specific BSP adjusts the size field up or down as required. If the driver supports only one BSP, you can set the size field to the exact size of the driver, then set the SizeIsCPUDependent field to 0.
Variable Strongly recommended. The per-implementation environment variables that are required for this driver to be included in the OS image, as follow:
  • The BSP_NO exclusion variable. Set to NULL.
  • The BSP_ inclusion variable. Set to 1.

  • The Sysgen variable needed to run Sysgen.bat and build only this driver. Typically, this is the case for drivers in the public tree. Platform and BSP drivers typically build and link without Sysgen.

    This environment variable tells Platform Builder to run Sysgen.bat on the driver when that driver is being built using the Build Selected Feature(s) command. The value of the variable is the command-line value passed to the Sysgen process. It is used only when you right-click the driver and select Build Selected Feature(s); for the standard platform build process, the variable is ignored.

For example, the ATI (Victoria Card) display requires these pre-implementation environment variables:

Variable("BSP_DISPLAY_ATI", 1)
Variable("BSP_NODISPLAY", "")
Variable("PB_REQUIRES_SYSGEN", "ddi_ati")
BSPPlatformDir Optional. The BSP platform directory where the BSP source is located. If the driver is a native driver, this field should be used for each native driver implementation that is specific to a BSP. This field tells Platform Builder to place the drivers under the BSP node in the Catalog View rather than in the common Device Drivers folder. It also specifies that the driver is available only for the specific BSP. If you use the BSPPlatformDir field for native drivers, you do not need to use the Children or OptionalChildren field in the implementation block. Platform Builder automatically places the drivers correctly in the Catalog and in the FeatureView.

The value for BSPPlatformDir is the name of the platform directory. The initial path, %_WINCEROOT%\platform, is assumed.

See Also

Device Driver and BSP Updater | Implementation Block

Last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2005

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