Windows® 2000 Device Driver Book: A Guide for Programmers, Second Edition, The

Hardware and Software Requirements

The terminology of the debug environment for drivers should be clear. The target machine executes the driver under test. The host machine, sometimes referred to as the development system, runs the debugger (e.g., WinDbg) and therefore controls the operation of the target. The two machines are connected together using a null-modem serial cable.

Another important but confusing term is debug client. The target machine must be booted into a special environment whereby it installs the debug client between the serial port and its operating system code. The debug client is the small block of code that allows the host debugger, via the serial port, to control the operation of the target system. The term can be confusing ...