MDIS5™ - MEN Driver Interface System

MDIS™ drivers can be used for all types of hardware as listed above, because in these cases the driver function can be presented to the application using the MDIS™ standard API (Application Programming Interface). The MDIS™ API is a function interface for the user defining the function calls to access an MDIS™ driver. It is written in ANSI C and is the same on all operating systems. Under Windows® it is available as a static library as well as a DLL and is therefore usable from almost any Windows® programming language (e. g. C/C++, Delphi, Visual Basic).

There are some device types like network and disk I/O, where the MDIS™ API cannot be used because the operating system already supports this kind of device. For those devices it is still necessary to develop a dedicated driver.

Another tool included is the MDIS™ configuration wizard for Linux and VxWorks®. It has a user-friendly "Windows®-like" GUI that allows for a fast and easy system configuration independent of the platform (e. g. VMEbus or CompactPCI®, PowerPC® or Pentium®). The MDIS™ wizard can also be used for hardware settings, e. g. to select resolution, amplification or signal conditioning modes of analog channels. Thus it is possible to generate executable MDIS™ projects which can be loaded in the application.

MDIS™ system packages for Linux and VxWorks® are delivered in source code under the GNU General Public License. MDIS™ low-level driver packages are mostly provided in source code under the GNU General Public License. All MDIS™ system packages and most of the low-level and Windows® driver packages are free of cost.

MDIS5™ for Windows® provides ready-built 32-bit and 64-bit PnP drivers and supports Windows® XP, Windows® Vista™/Vista 64-bit and Windows® 7. It also makes driver installation easier through MEN Installsets. In general, MDIS5™ low-level drivers are compatible with MDIS4™ system packages, while MDIS4™ low-level drivers are compatible with MDIS5™ system packages (with the exception of 64-bit support). For more information on compatibility of the individual operating systems, please refer to the OS-specific MDIS5™ user documentation.