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Why is it called "miniport"?

Anyone knows?

gdb
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  • See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniport – Paul R May 05 '11 at 08:16
  • @Paul R,But why is it called miniport? – gdb May 05 '11 at 08:33
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    Did you *read* this part: *The device class-specific driver models are typically structured as a* **port** *driver written by Microsoft paired with a* **miniport** *driver written by an independent hardware vendor. The* **port** *driver does much of the work required for the device class, and the* **miniport** *driver supports device-specific characteristics.* ? – Paul R May 05 '11 at 08:52
  • @Paul R,but why is device driver called port driver? – gdb May 05 '11 at 09:22
  • @gdb: because it's for some sort of I/O **port**, perhaps ? – Paul R May 05 '11 at 09:24
  • @Paul R,but I've never heard that any device is bound to some specific ports,is that the case in the underlying kernel? – gdb May 05 '11 at 09:36
  • @gdb: I/O drivers will typically be for a specific kind of port, e.g. a USB driver is for USB ports, so I suppose it kind of makes sense, but maybe there is some other interpretation of "port" that Microsoft uses ? – Paul R May 05 '11 at 09:42
  • @Paul R,you reminded me,I was interpreting the port as in `telnet localhost 80`,LOL! – gdb May 05 '11 at 09:44

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