The storage class of data is a guide to whether the driver might need to take explicit steps to control access to the data. The three data storage classes are:
Automatic (stack) data. Every thread has a private stack, so drivers never need to lock automatic variables.
Global static data. Global static data can be shared by any number of threads in the driver. The driver might need to lock this type of data at times.
Kernel heap data. Any number of threads in the driver can share kernel heap data, such as data allocated by kmem_alloc(9F). The driver needs to protect shared data at all times.