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Leopard Reference Library: Hardware & Drivers
Mass storage devices run the gamut from the fastest read/write peripheral disk drives to sequential-access tape drives. Mac OS X provides a layered mass storage driver stack that has built-in support for common industry-standard devices. Developers can use the BSD interface and I/O Kit APIs to access storage devices and their media at different layers of the stack.

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Mass Storage Device Driver Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Background and task information about developing kernel-resident drivers for mass storage devices.
Guides 2007-04-03
Device File Access Guide for Storage Devices (HTML) (PDF)
Guidelines for using I/O Kit and POSIX functions to develop applications that communicate with storage devices.
Guides 2007-03-06
Xserve G5 PCI Hardware RAID Card (PDF)
Explains how to install the card in an Xserve G5 and how to set up a RAID volume.
Guides 2005-01-03
Xserve G5 Using the Hardware RAID PCI Card (PDF)
Explains how to use the software provided with the Hardware RAID PCI Card to configure and manage RAID operations.
Guides 2005-01-03
Xserve RAID User's Guide (PDF)
Explains how to install the Xserve RAID system, connect it to a host system, and configure RAID storage.
Guides 2005-01-03
I/O Kit Framework Reference (HTML)
Describes the I/O Kit classes that support non-kernel access to I/O Kit objects through the device-interface mechanism.
Reference 2009-03-04
Kernel Framework Reference (HTML)
Describes the APIs and classes (including I/O Kit families) that support kernel-resident device drivers.
Reference 2009-01-06
Disk Arbitration Framework Reference (HTML)
Describes Disc Arbitration API, which includes information on mount/unmount notification and dissent.
Reference 2008-04-08
SimpleUserClient (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to create a user client for an I/O Kit kernel driver.
Sample Code 2008-08-27
CustomMediaIcons (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Providing custom media icons for storage
Sample Code 2007-07-10
SMARTQuery (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstration of how to access and use S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring functionality
Sample Code 2007-05-30
SCSIHBAEmulator (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstration of how to implement a virtual parallel tasking SCSI host bus adapter (HBA)
Sample Code 2007-02-20
SCSIOldAndNew (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates a backward-compatible technique for communicating with SCSI parallel devices on Mac OS X.
Sample Code 2006-12-07
USBPrivateDataSample (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates notifications when a USB device is hotplugged and associating arbitrary data with each device.
Sample Code 2006-10-16
VolumeToBSDNode (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to iterate across all mounted volumes and retrieve their BSD node names.
Sample Code 2006-10-16
VendorSpecificType00 (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates how to access vendor-specific storage device functionality using a simple interface from user space code.
Sample Code 2006-10-02
CDROMSample (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates how to find CD-ROM media and read sectors from that media on Mac OS X.
Sample Code 2006-01-31
SampleFilterScheme (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates a simple filter scheme which passes all operations through to its provider unchanged.
Sample Code 2006-01-03
AudioCDSample (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates how to discover audio CDs and access the TOC information presented by the CD-DA filesystem.
Sample Code 2005-10-04
CD-ROM Detection (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to determine whether a drive is a CD-ROM drive.
Sample Code 2003-01-14
Building Universal I/O Kit Drivers (HTML)
TN2163: How to build a universal I/O Kit kernel driver while avoiding common pitfalls.
Technical Notes 2008-08-18
Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
TN2063: Addresses kernel panics: what they are and how to debug the code that caused the panic.
Technical Notes 2008-08-14
Multipathing with FibreChannel on Mac OS X (HTML)
TN2173: An explanation on how FibreChannel multipathing works on Mac OS X and how to design storage hardware to take advantage of it
Technical Notes 2007-03-23
Secrets of the GPT (HTML)
TN2166: Describes the new partition map format used by Intel-based Macintosh computers.
Technical Notes 2006-11-06
CD-ROM Driver Calls (HTML)
Deprecated - DV22: Discusses public interface to Apple CD-ROM driver and supersedes information in AppleCD SC Developer's Guide.
Technical Notes 2000-08-14
Boot Blocks (HTML)
Deprecated - DV03: Warns that Boot Block form and function will change and describes undocumented Boot Blocks features.
Technical Notes 1987-03-01
Allocating and sharing memory with user space from an I/O Kit driver (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1197: Describes the preferred technique for allocating and sharing buffers in an I/O Kit kernel driver.
Technical Q&As 2008-10-13
Generating a Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1264: Explains how to generate a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) on modern Macintosh systems.
Technical Q&As 2008-10-13
Retain Counts of io_object_t Objects in IOKit.framework (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1195: Distinguishes between the retain counts of an I/O Kit kernel object and its io_object_t user space proxy.
Technical Q&As 2008-09-24
IODeviceTree and the I/O Registry (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1120: Describes the IODeviceTree plane in the Mac OS X I/O Registry.
Technical Q&As 2008-09-18
The "packages" node in the device tree (HTML)
HW90: Describes the "packages" node in the Open Firmware device tree.
Technical Q&As 2006-02-22
Sending SCSI or ATA commands to storage devices (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1179: Explains that Mac OS X does not implement SCSI or ATA pass-through for many mass storage devices.
Technical Q&As 2005-05-10
Installing an I/O Kit KEXT Without Rebooting (HTML)
QA1319: Describes the state of the art of installing I/O Kit kernel extensions (KEXTs) without requiring a restart.
Technical Q&As 2003-10-28
SDRAM Problems With Self-Powered USB Devices (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
HW82: Alerts that non-compliant, self-powered USB devices plugged into a G4, can cause problems with low-voltage-sensitive SDRAM .
Technical Q&As 2003-08-21
Power Management; Policy Maker vs. Power Controller (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1121: Describes the differences between a Power Management Policy Maker and a Power Management Power Controller.
Technical Q&As 2002-02-13
IOKit Framework Headers (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1107: Describes the differences between the headers in IOKit.framework and the I/O Kit headers in Kernel.framework.
Technical Q&As 2002-01-15
The dreaded "incompatible flag -framework" error (HTML)
QA1096: Explains how to eliminate the incompatible flag -framework error in Project Builder.
Technical Q&As 2001-12-05
Legacy Devices (HTML)
HW84: Discusses why legacy devices with hard-wired I/O addresses may not work properly with Open Firmware.
Technical Q&As 2000-03-20
A SCSI little secret (HTML)
HW81: Details what to expect when accessing the motherboard SCSI bus on the Blue & White G3.
Technical Q&As 1999-12-20
Which Machines Support Driver Services Library and the MP Nanokernel? (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
HW63: Lists the systems that do and don't support the Driver Services Library and the MP Nanokernel.
Technical Q&As 1999-07-12
Booting after invoking the Open Firmware user interface (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
HW48: Tells how to boot a system after entering the Open Firmware user interface.
Technical Q&As 1999-02-15
What are configuration variables in Open Firmware? (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
HW38: Defines the configuration variables in Open Firmware.
Technical Q&As 1999-02-15
What are snag keys in Open Firmware? (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
HW35: Explains Open Firmware snag keys, including examples of their function.
Technical Q&As 1999-02-15
Detecting a CD-ROM (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
DV18: Demonstrates CD-ROM drive detection.
Technical Q&As 1997-01-31
Getting a List of Drivers & LUNs (logical unit numbers) (HTML)
Deprecated - DV04: Describes a legacy Mac OS technique for obtaining a list of SCSI Parallel drivers, devices, and LUNs.
Technical Q&As 1995-07-01