MDIS4™ - 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 accessible via DLL callable from C/C++, Delphi and 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.

The MDIS™ packages include a a plug&play tool for Windows® which allows automatic installation of the Windows® drivers in accordance with the MDIS™-relevant hardware functions found in the system.

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, those for Windows® (and OS-9®) are delivered in object code. 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 driver packages are free of cost.