Windows Open Service Architecture

Windows Open Service Architecture

(architecture, library, microsoft)(WOSA) One of the mainstaysof Microsoft Windows: the ethos of abstraction of coreservices.

For each extension, Windows Open Services Architecturedefines an API and an SPI, as well as a universalinterface (usually placed in a single DLL) that both complyto.

These then transparently let the operating system speak todevice drivers, database managers, and other low levelentities.

These extensions include, among others, ODBC (called the"crowning jewel of WOSA"), TAPI, WOSA/XFS, SAPI andMAPI, and their supporting services, as well as theabstraction of access to printers, modems, and networking services, which run identically over TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, andNetBEUI.