I think it would be appropriate to support such methods now. A few years back most (all) of the smart card readers were serial in their operation. To have a multi-threaded resource manager that handles multiple slots (one per thread, no mutex) you really need hardware that allows you to send a command to it and then wait for an event as to when the command is completed. The problem is that in most readers, the reader itself is a serial device as in it can only execute one command at a time.
Is anyone on the list familiar with a reader that supports multiple slots that can be communicated with even while another another slot is under operation ???
Dave
On Thursday, September 4, 2003, at 04:47 AM, Michael Bender wrote:
Ludovic Rousseau wrote:Le jeudi 04 septembre 2003 � 00:11:24, Michael Bender a �crit:I don't know why the drivers are not multi-threaded by default. I wasBut why aren't drivers multi-threaded by default rather than playing a game with asking them if they are and then doing one thing if they say yes and another if they say no?
not yet in the MUSCLE community at that time. But I know most of them
are _not_ multi-threaded. So we just can't decide to multi-thread pcscd
and break a lot of drivers.
Asking the driver is easy and backward compatible.
Yes, you're right about that, we went through the same thing in Solaris long ago when we had a bunch of non-MP-aware drivers that had to exist in the (new then) MP-enabled kernel. Unless the driver told the kernel that it was an MP-aware driver, the kernel assumed that it wasn't, and it grabbed a pretty heavy hammer lock on the system whenever it called into such a driver. It did take a while to flush out all the old non-MP drivers, and eventually I think all Solaris kernel drivers needed to be MP aware.
Maybe in a few years we'll be able to require all MUSCLE IFD handlers are MP/MT safe.
But it's just... I don't know, it seems that the UNIX community is fond of re-inventing and "re-discovering" old technologies every so often and marking them as "new" and "advanced" but only because the current crop of people have no history as to how things were done. MP/MT drivers are a good case in point, why weren't those drivers required to be MP/MT safe from day one? That's a rhetorical question of course.
mike
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -----
Michael Bender E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tel: 831-401-9510
14 Network Circle Tel: x.31807
Menlo Park, Ca. 94025
Mailstop: UMPK14-260 MD: VPN/IMAP
By yourself you are nothing. It is only by relation to other living things that you achieve identity. Without the parent there is no child, without a lover you are not one either. Value living things. They are all you have become.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- -----
*********************************************************************** *****
SunNetwork 2003 Conference and Pavilion
"An unparalleled event in network computing! Make the net work for you!"
WHEN: September 16-18, 2003 WHERE: Moscone Center, San Francisco
For more information or to register for the conference, please visit:
http://www.sun.com/sunnetwork
*********************************************************************** *****
_______________________________________________ Muscle mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.musclecard.com/mailman/listinfo/muscle
_______________________________________________ Muscle mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.musclecard.com/mailman/listinfo/muscle
