Wdm driver what is

WDM drivers are classified into three types: Function drivers are written for a specific device, such as a printer Bus drivers are for such common busses as PCI, SCSI and USB, and are designed for a bus controller, adapter or bridge and software vendors may create their own bus drivers Filter drivers, which may be non-device drivers, but when they do enable a device they add value to, or change the operation of, a given device or multiple devices. Driver software developers have had a number of criticisms about the WDM, including: That it is very complex to understand.

The interactions with plug-n-play and power management events are difficult. Every driver requires thousands of lines of support code. The documentation and sample drivers are of questionable quality. Share this Term. Tech moves fast! Stay ahead of the curve with Techopedia! Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services.

Privacy policy. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Because the WDM Driver is re-routing sound in real time, it is more sensitive to buffering settings than normal audio playback.

There are two buffers that are important to WDM performance:. If you are experiencing clicks and pops, try different combinations of settings with these two buffers. It is important to note that a larger buffer will not necessarily work better. Different hardware configurations work best with different combinations of settings, so try different combinations large and small until you find settings that resolve your issue.

Because the WDM driver requires some buffer to function, it necessarily adds some latency to audio. For pure audio applications, this is irrelevant, but for streaming video or video games , too much latency can cause lipsync issues. A Linux driver can be written so that it is statically linked or written in a modular form that allows it to be dynamically loaded. This makes Linux memory usage very efficient because modules can be written to probe for their own hardware and unload themselves if they cannot find the hardware they are looking for.

Classification of Drivers According to Operating Systems. WDM Drivers. WDF Drivers. Unix Device Drivers.