This book is a complete presentation of the content of the PCI Hot-Plug Specification. Each of the requirements of the PCI Hot Plug specification is presented. Additional background information is provided that explains why the specification was written as it was, or possible consequences of non-compliance.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Over the past decade a new class of business machinery has emerged—the standards-based server. Leveraging the economies of scale of the personal computer industry, this class of machine has advanced far beyond its original “personal” roots. Today’s servers often use multiple microprocessors, each with performance several orders of magnitude greater than their ancestors of a decade ago. Storage systems once measured in the tens of megabytes can now be measured in terabytes.
With the growth of robust operating systems such as Novell IntranetWare, Microsoft Windows NT, and x86 versions of Unix from Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), the standards-based server has become an essential piece of business infrastructure. Anxious to take advantage of the dramatic reduction in the price/performance ratio of such systems, businesses have enthusiastically transferred to standards-based servers data and applications essential to their day-to-day operation.
Essential business applications require much more than faster hardware, more storage, and different operating systems. As businesses depend more upon their servers, reliability and manageability has become more important. Company-wide local-area networks and email systems, first implemented for convenience, have become mission-critical applications. Loss of the network for even short periods of time can have enormous impact on a company’s operation. Furthermore, the need to simplify system management, and the availability of higher performance server, has enabled consolidation of multiple smaller servers into fewer more powerful ones. This trend multiplies the need for constant availability as each downtime event affects more and more people in bigger and bigger ways.
Server hardware and software manufacturers have responded to the demand for more reliable systems by introducing hardware redundancy and expanded system management tools. Redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID) storage systems protect critical data in the least reliable subsystem, the mechanical operation of the disk drives. RAID systems commonly include hot-plug drives that enable the user to replace the failed component or expand storage capacity without interrupting the overall operation of the server. Error-correcting memory subsystems protect system operation against random memory errors. Redundant power supplies, backup processor cards, redundant network interface cards (NICs), and even schemes for one system to fail and transfer all operation to a different system have all been introduced to reduce the occurrence or length of downtime events.
The next step on the road to increased availability of servers is in the I/O subsystem. Since its introduction in 1992, the PCI local bus has become the most widely used I/O bus in standards-based server systems. Compaq Computer Corporation recognized the need for defining a standard way to remove and install standard PCI adapter cards without powering-off the server. In June 1996 Compaq approached the Steering Committee of the PCI Special Interest Group to form a workgroup to develop such a standard. The workgroup was immediately formed with Compaq as the chair. The amazing unity among the workgroup member companies, and the speed at which the first draft of the specification was published, testify to the recognition in the industry of the need for PCI hot-plug capabilities. Draft 0.9 of the PCI Hot-Plug Specification was made public in March of 1997, nine months after the Steering Committee chartered the workgroup. At the time of this writing, the final version of the specification is in the final release process. Formal release of the specification by the PCI Steering Committee should occur in October of 1997.
This book is first of all a complete presentation of the content of the PCI Hot-Plug Specification. Each of the requirements of the specification is presented. Where appropriate, additional background information is presented that explains why the specification was written as it was, or possible consequences of non-compliance. This book is not intended to replace the specification. The ultimate authority on PCI hot-plug operations remains the official specification. However, reading this book prior to or concurrently with the specification should improve the reader’s understanding of the requirements of the specification. The reader is assumed to be familiar with the PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.1.
In addition to presenting the content of the specification, this book also includes application information that is beyond the scope of the specification. Chapter 7 discusses the hardware implemented in Compaq’s first product designed to this specification, the ProLiant 6500, as an example of platform hardware. Chapter 8 discusses how the specification is addressed in the first products from Novell, Microsoft, and SCO.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
pci hot-plug,
By guozhong (China) - See all my reviews
This review is from: PCI HotPlug Application and Design (Paperback)
It is a very good book for an engineer.PCI Hot-plug is an important technology for us to learn.The technology will bring huge effects in industry.If you want to devise card of PCI,I will advise you to read the book.The book will tell you many knowledges about PCI Hot-plug.It's exciting.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pci Hot-Plug:Application & Design,
By guozhong (China) - See all my reviews
This review is from: PCI HotPlug Application and Design (Paperback)
It's a very good book for an engineer.Pci Hot-Plug is an important technology for us to learn.If you want to master some skills on PCI,the book will be a great help to you.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Over the past decade, file and application servers based on the industry-standard personal computer architecture have undergone steady improvement in the areas of reliability and availability. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hot-Plug Controller, Hot-Plug Service, Hot-Plug System Driver, Hot-Plug Spec, Configuration Space, Platform Configuration Routine, Novell Event Bus, Driver Interface, Admin Manager, Configuration Write, Miscellaneous Control, Setting Slot Status, System Management Driver, Controller Interface, Backward Compatibility, Local Bus Specification, Microsoft Windows, Routing Table, Special Interest Group, System Bus Driver, Status Register, Adapter Card Card, Bit Description, Ground Ground, Open Firmware New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Over the past decade, file and application servers based on the industry-standard personal computer architecture have undergone steady improvement in the areas of reliability and availability. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hot-Plug Controller, Hot-Plug Service, Hot-Plug System Driver, Hot-Plug Spec, Configuration Space, Platform Configuration Routine, Novell Event Bus, Driver Interface, Admin Manager, Configuration Write, Miscellaneous Control, Setting Slot Status, System Management Driver, Controller Interface, Backward Compatibility, Local Bus Specification, Microsoft Windows, Routing Table, Special Interest Group, System Bus Driver, Status Register, Adapter Card Card, Bit Description, Ground Ground, Open Firmware New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
