I have no idea, as I've never used them. The resource management API
is very low level; it deals with IRQ, DMA, I/O, address, etc., allocation.
Sitting on top of this is the _optional_ Plug-and-Play API, which is
intended to handle any kind of device that requires resources (all
devices require some sort of hardware resource).
Hooks are already in place for: PnP-ISA, PnP-BIOS, PCI, PCMCIA,
EISA, legacy (non-identifiable and/or non-configurable). Adding hooks
for new device types is easily done. Also, stuff like devices
on docking stations are supported.
At the moment, the interface favours PnP-ISA/PnP-BIOS, but this is
soon to change.
> I see no reason to have N fundamentally different interfaces for this
> if we can have one common interface. This will also be usefull if/when
> we try to integrate/merge various drivers (for instance I dont see
> much of a reason for having 7+ different Lance Ethernet drivers in the
> kernel).
This is exactly what the PnP API will hopefully achieve. A driver
will ask for what devices are present, determine which ones it can handle,
and request that the devices be configured and activated.
-- Andrew E. Mileski mailto:aem@ott.hookup.net Linux Plug-and-Play Kernel Project http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/pnp/ XFree86 Matrox Team http://www.bf.rmit.edu.au/~ajv/xf86-matrox.html