The Microsoft Windows XP/2000 Bus Driver allows new buses to be defined and used with the Microsoft Windows XP/2000 operating system. With the dual mode characteristics of the StarGen fabric, full PCI legacy drivers do not require a new bus driver when used with the address-routed mechanism. In order to use the advanced path routing features, fabric devices need to be discovered and assigned resources using a driver that is cognizant of this process with StarFabric and its devices. In some instances similar to PCI bus driver, the Microsoft Windows XP/2000 bus driver will be responsible for:
Claiming ownership as a bus driver for the fabric
A bus driver will present all fabric path routed discovered devices as a set of child devices to the operating system. This way higher-level class, function, or filter drivers can attach themselves to these devices.