Case Study: Embedded System

The Client

The client is a branch of a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation in Japan. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century.

Business Needs

The client wanted to develop an embedded system full-functional monolithic printer driver for four models of a new monochrome line matrix printer for the following platforms: Windows 2000 server (Professional, Server, Advanced Server), Windows XP (Professional and Home Edition), and Windows Server 2003 (Standard, Enterprise and Web edition). The driver had to be able to support Japanese and English.

Duration: 7 months

Challenges

The task was quite challenging because of the following:
   - Writing a device driver is usually difficult, as it requires an in-depth understanding of how the printers and the Windows family of operating systems function.
   - The device driver executes in kernel mode, software bugs can often damage the system. In contrast, most user-level software on modern operating systems can be stopped without greatly affecting the rest of the system. Even drivers executing in user mode can crash a system if the device is erroneously programmed.
This means that a quality design had to be well implemented and a careful testing process carried out.

Solutions

Concerted endeavors at understanding the technical documents provided and improving on the existing domain knowledge were the two main approaches followed by the FPT Software team to ensure successful completion of the project.
Our professionals developed the embedded systems printer driver on the Windows DDK platform. The tools used included VC++ and concurrent versions system (CVS) for configuration management.
The following types of file were created:
   - Configuration interface file: to display the properties and preferences dialog boxes when configuring a printer.
   - Data file: to provide information about the capabilities of the specific printer.
   - Printer graphic driver file: to translate device driver interface (DDI) commands into commands that the printer could understand.
Unit and integration tests were also conducted to ensure the driver ran well with the Windows family of operating systems.

Technologies Used: Visual C++, Windows DDK, MS Visual Studio.

Benefits to Customer:

With the completion of the project, the four printer models: IBM 5400-L02, 5400-006, 5400-L10, 5400-L06 has interacted well with the windows family of operating systems.
The client was able to reduce cost thanks to the offshore partnership with FPT Software.