This whitepaper describes an approach to solving the “device driver crisis” that plagues both the embedded and non-embedded computer system markets. SciTech, the developer of the “System Neutral Access Protocol” device driver architecture (“SNAP”), says the SNAP approach to device driver development is radically different from traditional methods, and can drastically reduce the complexity of OS- and… processor architecture-related device driver support. SNAP is based on a unique Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) combined with pre-compiled binaries for each specific processor family, that can supposedly run on any operating system (including Linux / embedded Linux). Additionally, SciTech has released its SNAP driver development tools under a dual commercial/LGPL license and offers a free download of the LGPL version (much as Trolltech as done with Qt), enabling developers to use the tools to create free, LGPL drivers.

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