Potential OSR students frequently ask, "What do I need to know to be well-prepared for an OSR driver seminar?" If you are one of those students and you want to get the maximum benefit out of one of our seminars… here's your answer.

What's listed below is information that well-prepared students (coming from a non-Windows NT "family" platform, for example) should know. Notice that the vast majority of the information that's listed is generic operating system knowledge, and is not Windows specific. If you begin to hyperventilate after reading this list, relax. This is not an "absolute minimum" prereq list, it's a guideline for those of you who wish to get the most out of the seminar. Students at all levels benefit from our seminars.

• The difference between wait locks versus spin locks, and why spin locks might be used in an Operating System

• Threads and processes: What these are in the Windows world versus the Unix world (we DO cover key aspects of threads/processes on Windows in these particular seminars)

• What we mean by "thread safe", fully re-entrant, and MP safe

• Processor modes - What's the difference between Ring 0 and Ring 3 in an x86 architecture system

• Memory management - User mode, versus Kernel Mode. What we mean by "demand paged virtual memory"

• The difference between I/O port space and memory space

• Something about how devices work: What a device register looks like, why/when devices interrupt

• The basics of USB, including the general characteristics of control, interrupt, bulk and isochronous endpoints.

Of course, if you have other questions please email us at seminars@osr.com.