Are your drivers ready for Windows Whistler? In August, Microsoft
hosted a
Plugfest aimed at testing interop and robustness of a range of
filesystem
and filesystem filter drivers on Windows 2000 SP1. We are in a new
development cycle with Windows Whistler, and we want to make sure that
you’re ready when we ship. Not only that, your product may work in the
lab,
but what happens when you try to run it along side of another product
that
uses filter drivers? Don’t you really want to know? There’s still time.
This
may be the most important event that you attend all year.
What: Fall IRP-OPOLOOZA 2000
When: November 13th, 2000, Through November 17th, 2000
Where: Building 20, Microsoft Campus, Redmond, WA
Duration: 5 days
The rough schedule is as follows:
Day 1: Companies settle and prepare for testing; test their products on
the
supplied machines; request test partners for following 4 days.
Day 2: Two deep, scenario-based 4-hour interop test sessions, including
IOSTRESS and IFSTEST.
Day 3: Morning for fixes, self-testing and talks on File System Filter
design. Afternoon: One deep, scenario-based 4-hour interop test session,
including IOSTRESS and IFSTEST.
Day 4: Two deep, scenario-based 4-hour interop test sessions, including
IOSTRESS and IFSTEST.
Day 5: One deep, scenario-based 4-hour interop test session, including
IOSTRESS and IFSTEST. Afternoon meeting to discuss results, and have Q+A
with wide range of NT kernel developers.
Tests will be run on Windows Whistler Server. The exact build is yet to
be
determined, but if you attend, you will receive a copy of the build
before
the event, along with a copy of the current tests. We will be testing on
both the x86 platform and the IA-64 platform. We realize that many of
you
have not started development on 64-bit Windows, but consider this part
of
Plugfest as a Development Lab, and a chance to ask questions, and learn
about 64-bit implementation. If you’ve already started a 64-bit driver,
this
will be your chance to test it and see how will it do against our tests.
Microsoft will *not* publish a general results matrix after the event.
Vendors will only have the results of the tests between themselves and
the
other parties; the results of each test are provided to Microsoft, but
Microsoft will not disclose them to third parties. This is the same as
the
arrangement in August.
There is no fee for attending this event. However, you are responsible
for
your airfare/hotel and other travel expenses.
This event is limited to 40 companies - for a total of 80 attendees.
Since
this is a relatively small event, prompt confirmation is required to
attend.
If you are interested in attending, please e-mail me, at
xxxxx@microsoft.com.
Entrance Requirements:
There are a few criteria you must meet in order to attend:
-
Your product needs to include a Windows 2000 file system filter driver
(not a storage filter driver, redirector, or other driver model). We are
specifically inviting a small number of true file system filter vendors
to
this event, but the general invite is only for File System Filter driver
vendors. We are looking into future events that focus on network or
local
file systems in the future. -
The main developer of the driver must attend the event. Additionally,
another person should attend, either another driver developer, or a
tester
to help with testing/installation issues. Both attendees must be able to
use
a kernel debugger to diagnose the problems that surface during
interoperability testing. -
Microsoft will provide technical resources to help with the
interoperability issues that arise. The owners of the products are
expected
to do the primary diagnosis of problems. If Microsoft developers are
needed
to debug a problem, the i386kd or Windbg debuggers should be configured
and
in use, instead of other commercial debuggers. This ensures we have
access
to our kernel debugging extensions and removes another factor in the
interop
test. -
We will have a Press Release describing the event when it occurs.
Attendees who wish to keep their presence out of this press release may
indicate so when they RSVP.
Please RSVP quickly - this event is expected to fill.
Edward Baisa
Program Manager - Storage Technologies
Base OS Storage
Microsoft Corporation
Phone: (425) 703-9488