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What is "NDIS"?

NDIS is short for the "Network Driver Interface Specification". The primary purpose of NDIS is to define a standard API for "Network Interface Cards" (NIC's). The details of a NIC's hardware implementation is wrapped by a "Media Access Controller" (MAC) device driver in such a way that all NIC's for the same media (e.g., Ethernet) can be accessed using a common programming interface.

NDIS also provides a library of functions (sometimes called a "wrapper") that can be used by MAC drivers as well as higher level protocol drivers (such as TCP/IP). The wrapper functions serve to make development of both MAC and protocol drivers easier as well as to hide (to some extent) platform dependencies.

Early versions of NDIS were jointly developed by Microsoft and the 3Com Corporation. Current NDIS versions used by Windows For Workgroups (WFW), Windows 9X Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are Microsoft proprietary specifications.

3/24/06

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Last modified: January 20, 2007