PCI-X System Architecture (With CD-ROM)

The PCI-X bus will start appearing in advanced PCs within months, delivering breakthrough performance, transfer rates of up to 1.06 Gb/sec, and backward compatibility with the PCI standard. Now, there's a comprehensive guide to PCI-X, covering everything engineers and developers need to create robust, reliable PCI-X boards and software. As with all MindShare books, PCI-X System Architecture is written in an accessible, tutorial style proven to train engineers. It's based on MindShare's leading edge PCI-X course, and reflects extensive feedback and insights from hundreds of working professionals. The book presents detailed descriptions of every aspect of the PCI-X specification, including: device types and bus initialization, error detection and handling, split completion messages, and 64-bit transactions. It offers in-depth coverage of device enumeration and configuration; traffic analysis and load tuning, PCI-X bridges, electrical issues, and much more. For all computer hardware and software design engineers, and for all developers concerned with advanced PC hardware.

PCI-X is the successor to the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Bus Specification, the current standard that enables communication between peripheral devices and the computer processor. A major improvement over the older PCI technology, PCI-X enables significantly higher performance with transfer rates of up to 1.06 GB per second.

PCI-X System Architecture is a detailed and comprehensive guide to the PCI-X technology. It highlights the many changes and improvements from PCI 2.2 to PCI-X, so that you can build on your PCI knowledge to master PCI-X with greater ease. The book discusses the drawbacks of PCI and how PCI-X solves these problems, achieving faster transfer rates. In addition, it presents in-depth information and practical guidance on the PCI-X transaction protocol, device configuration for PCI-X, load tuning, PCI-X bridges, error detection and handling, and electrical issues.

You will find specific information on such key topics as:

• Device types and bus initialization, including Hot-Plug PCI-X initialization
• Dword and burst commands
• Bus arbitration, latency rules, and burst transactions
• Transaction termination
• Split completion messages
• 64-bit transactions
• Bridge and non-bridge configuration registers
• Load tuning, including adjustable fields and registers, split completion buffers, and adjusting timeslice values
• PCI-X–to–PCI-X bridges
• Handling master abort, attribute phase parity errors, and split read errors

Anyone who designs or tests hardware or software that involves the PCI-X bus will find PCI-X System Architecture an essential resource for understanding and working with this important technology.

Presenting information and practical guidance on the PCI-X transaction protocol, device configuration for PCI-X, load tuning, PCI-X bridges, error detection and handling, and electrical issues, this is a guide to the PCI-X technology. It includes a CD-ROM and is for those who designs or tests hardware or software that involves the PCI-X bus.