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MAC OS SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPERS1. IntroductionWe realize the enormous popularity of the Apple's products, and have created software support for:under Mac OS X operating system . The software support contains of core install binaries and the developer's support files. We are providing a basic API (application programming interface) set for developers allowing building of applications that can access i/o ports and physical memory areas. An additional api set is available in our SDKBUS kit allowing for ISA / PCMCIA / PCI cards mounted on our USB2 family of products or the SSI2 family of products. We have geared our Mac OS X product release specifically for developers and programmers, who can take the source code of a specific ISA, PCI, or PCMCIA card , and make it working with USB2 / SSI2 products. The current release is for Apple computers based on Intel processors - running Mac OS X 10.4 / Tiger and 10.5 / Leopard. 2. Where is the source code?We have developed an independent USB2 and SSI2 host and device support. Originally developed under Windows operating systems and ported for Linux, it is currently working under Mac OS X operating system.We do not share our source code with developers or users - it is our company proprietary and confidential code. We are providing instead an easy to use interface to our products , together with samples. The current Mac OS X kernels contain USB2 EHCI host support. Our USB2 host support can co-exist with the built in Mac OS X USB2 host support. If needed, you can add an USB2 host controller - as a PCI card to a desktop computer, or a PCMCIA card to a notebook computer, and use this controller specifically for the USB2ISA family of products and USB2PCMCIA product. Our SSI2 products require using a host card - SSI2 Host PCI for a desktop computer, or SSI2 HOST CB/EC for a notebook computer with either CardBus or ExpressCard slots. 3. Core binaries useThe Mac OS X release files are packed in a single .zip file. The file name includes our release number - for ex. macosx-2-0-3.zip. Every time any of the files are updated, the release number is increased to reflect the change.You can copy the .zip file to a disk, unpack/unzip, and copy the files to a folder on your Mac OS X system. Our core binaries contain 1 driver - 'arstech.kext' , and one applications - 'arsenum' . The binaries have been built and tested for i386 & x64 type processors , including the 32bit / 64bit families of : 3.1 loading our driver3.1.1 loading under Mac OS X -For loading under Mac OS X - Please start first the 'Terminal' utility. There is a little script file which helps with loading of the driver - arsinit.bat . Please run it from a command line in 'Terminal' like -./arsinit.bat The different commands in the above script will require the 'root' ('administrator' / 'super user') password. Please type it when prompted. 3.2. ARS Technologies enumerator3.2.1. Finding the correct binaryThe Mac OS X 'arsenum' is in the main folder.You can load the enumerator on command line as - ./arsenum If needed, please change the mode of arsenum to allow execution - chmod u+x arsenum The program scans and reports the computer system's i/o and memory spaces. When first run the program shows the number of USB2 EHCI hosts found, and if there are more than one, asks for a selection of which one will be used with our USB2ISA / USB2PCMCIA products. The selection is stored and the next time the program is run, there is no selection prompt. To select another host - choose 'd' on the main command selection, re-run the program and make another selection. When an USB2ISA / USB2PCMCIA product is connected / disconnected there is text messages. When inserted, the enumerator reports the type of the card - USB2ISA or USB2PCMCIA, the usb port where it was connected. A scanning of the hardware resources is performed and the found i/o ports, and physical memory areas are reported. When running the enumerator program it shows the SSI2 hosts found - if found present. When an SSI2 ISA / SSI2 PCI / SSI2 PCMCIA product is connected / disconnected there are text messages. When inserted, the enumerator reports the type of the card - SSI2 ISA / SSI2 PCI / SSI2 PCMCIA , the usb port where it was connected. A scanning of the hardware resources is performed and the found i/o ports, and physical memory areas are reported. The scanning of the hardware resources is not ideal, and some hidden ports / memory areas may not be recognized or reported. There may be a need to add manually resources which were not detected. Choose 'r' to add resources, select the resource type : 1-i/o ports, 2-memory area, 3-irq channel, or 4-dma channel, and type the addresses or the channel number. The main command prompt of the enumerator contains a selection of commands for manual read/write of i/o & physical memory spaces. Please use for an initial check / test of the ISA / PCMCIA cards - manual reading/writing of/to the detected resources. Next, a developer of an application, based on our API set, for an ISA, PCI, or PCMCIA card can run the application. The enumerator - 'arsenum' has to be running, in order to use the above application and the ISA, PCI, or PCMCIA card. 4. Developer's support4.1 Basic API setHere is the commands list :Standard commands used by application for direct access to i/o ports - Standard commands used by application for direct access to physical memory - - Where i/o port read/write - port range 0-ffff (64 kB space) physical memory read/write - address range 0-fffff (1mB space) !!! Note1: In order to read/write meaningful values , the ARSTech enumerator should be running , the USB2ISA / USB2PCMCIA, or SSI2 ISA / SSI2 PCI / SSI2 PCMCIA card needs to be connected and recognized by the enumerator, and the mounted ISA / PCI / PCMCIA card need to actually have the i/o port or the physical memory area being accessed. !!! Note2: Please note the calling convention of the api set - outb/outw , writeb/writew commands. The first parameter in our api set is the address of the port or physical memory , compared to other operating systems where the address is the second parameter. Please replace if needed, as for ex. - #define outb(a, b) out8(b, a) !!! Note3: An additional API set is available in our SDKBUS kit allowing the additional possibilities of - for ISA / PCI / PCMCIA cards mounted on our USB2 family of products , or SSI2 family of products. 4.2 Samples for using our API setThere are 2 samples located in 'sample-st' and 'sample-dyn' directories, showing reading of sector 1 - partition table of a hard disk , connected to an ISA I/O card mounted on USB2ISA / SSI2 ISA - the type that has one floppy , one ide controllers , 2 serial and one parallel ports . The disk needs to be connected and powered on.In addition the ARSTech enumerator should be running, the USB2ISA / USB2PCMCIA / SSI2 ISA / SSI2 PCI / SSI2 PCMCIA card needs to be connected and recognized by the enumerator, and the mounted ISA / PCI / PCMCIA card need to actually have the i/o port or the physical memory area being accessed. To build the samples you can run the script file - ./mk.bat The api set in 'sample-st' is obtained from our archive (or static library) file - libars1.a . You will need to link with this archive for every new project you are building. The api set in 'sample-dyn' is obtained from the dynamic library file - arsusb1.so. You will need to place this file in a common directory, for ex. in '/usr/lib' . 5. Developing new and porting existing softwareApple Computer provides an excellent support for developers, they can find extensive information online on - http://developer.apple.com.In general, for accessing hardware Apple provides the IOKit which is a collection of interfaces, each for a particular device group - like for USB, PCI, FireWire, PC Card, etc. The way of getting access to the actual hardware resources is quite complex, with a developer having to deal with - We are providing a very easy and straightforward way of dealing with hardware - similar to the way used in the BSD family of operating systems, or Linux operating system. Our basic api set provided with the installation software, and the advanced api set - provided in sdkbus, allows quick building of simple command line / Terminal applications, as well as beautiful 'Carbon' and 'Cocoa' graphical applications. 6. Running DOS programs with USB2ISA / USB2PCMCIA / SSI2 ISA / SSI2 PCI / SSI2 PCMCIAYou can run DOS applications and drivers under Mac OS X using DOS emulators.There is a variety of choices with one well maintained and supported one - DosBox, which provides support not only on Linux , but on Windows , Mac OS X , and number of other environments. We are working on a providing of a build for Mac OS X, as well as some source code for developers. The latest release of our DosBox release is available on - www.arstech.com/dosbox-rel.zip . You can run the enumerator , connect USB2ISA / USB2PCMCIA / SSI2 ISA / SSI2 PCI / SSI2 PCMCIA , run 'dosbox' , run the DOS application and test. |
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