|
|
|
NT-based operating system video miniport drivers are adapter-specific, kernel-mode drivers. Each different type of graphics card that can be used with an NT-based operating system must have both a video miniport driver and a display driver.
A video miniport driver links itself with the video port driver, which is a system-supplied, kernel-mode dynamic-link library. A miniport driver calls only the video port driver's VideoPortXxx functions to communicate with the system and with its hardware.
Windows 2000 and later miniport drivers must be implemented as Plug and Play (PnP) drivers. The Windows 2000 and later video port driver supports Windows NT 4.0 drivers as legacy drivers.
This section provides implementation details for video miniport writers and describes the miniport driver's interaction with both the display driver and the video port driver. Reference pages for all video port and miniport driver functions can be found in the Graphics Driver Reference.
Display drivers are discussed in Introduction to Display and Display Drivers.