PCI Express System Architecture (Paperback)

~ Mindshare Inc. (Author), Ravi Budruk (Author), Don Anderson (Author), Tom Shanley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"We have always recommended these books to our customers and even our own engineers for developing a better understanding of technologies and specifications. We find the latest PCI Express book from MindShare to have the same content and high quality as all the others." --Nader Saleh, CEO/President, Catalyst Enterprises, Inc. PCI Express is the third-generation Peripheral Component Inter-connect technology for a wide range of systems and peripheral devices. Incorporating recent advances in high-speed, point-to-point interconnects, PCI Express provides significantly higher performance, reliability, and enhanced capabilities--at a lower cost--than the previous PCI and PCI-X standards. Therefore, anyone working on next-generation PC systems, BIOS and device driver development, and peripheral device design will need to have a thorough understanding of PCI Express. PCI Express System Architecture provides an in-depth description and comprehensive reference to the PCI Express standard. The book contains information needed for design, verification, and test, as well as background information essential for writing low-level BIOS and device drivers.In addition, it offers valuable insight into the technology's evolution and cutting-edge features. Following an overview of the PCI Express architecture, the book moves on to cover transaction protocols, the physical/electrical layer, power management, configuration, and more. Specific topics covered include: *Split transaction protocol *Packet format and definition, including use of each field *ACK/NAK protocol *Traffic Class and Virtual Channel applications and use *Flow control initialization and operation *Error checking mechanisms and reporting options *Switch design issues *Advanced Power Management mechanisms and use *Active State Link power management *Hot Plug design and operation *Message transactions *Physical layer functions *Electrical signaling characteristics and issues *PCI Express enumeration procedures *Configuration register definitions Thoughtfully organized, featuring a plethora of illustrations, and comprehensive in scope, PCI Express System Architecture is an essential resource for anyone working with this important technology.MindShare's PC System Architecture Series is a crisply written and comprehensive set of guides to the most important PC hardware standards. Books in the series are intended for use by hardware and software designers, programmers, and support personnel. 0321156307B08262003

From the Back Cover

"We have always recommended these books to our customers and even our own engineers for developing a better understanding of technologies and specifications. We find the latest PCI Express book from MindShare to have the same content and high quality as all the others."
—Nader Saleh, CEO/President, Catalyst Enterprises, Inc.

PCI Express is the third-generation Peripheral Component Inter-connect technology for a wide range of systems and peripheral devices. Incorporating recent advances in high-speed, point-to-point interconnects, PCI Express provides significantly higher performance, reliability, and enhanced capabilities—at a lower cost—than the previous PCI and PCI-X standards. Therefore, anyone working on next-generation PC systems, BIOS and device driver development, and peripheral device design will need to have a thorough understanding of PCI Express.

PCI Express System Architecture provides an in-depth description and comprehensive reference to the PCI Express standard. The book contains information needed for design, verification, and test, as well as background information essential for writing low-level BIOS and device drivers. In addition, it offers valuable insight into the technology's evolution and cutting-edge features.

Following an overview of the PCI Express architecture, the book moves on to cover transaction protocols, the physical/electrical layer, power management, configuration, and more. Specific topics covered include:

• Split transaction protocol
• Packet format and definition, including use of each field
• ACK/NAK protocol
• Traffic Class and Virtual Channel applications and use
• Flow control initialization and operation
• Error checking mechanisms and reporting options
• Switch design issues
• Advanced Power Management mechanisms and use
• Active State Link power management
• Hot Plug design and operation
• Message transactions
• Physical layer functions
• Electrical signaling characteristics and issues
• PCI Express enumeration procedures
• Configuration register definitions

Thoughtfully organized, featuring a plethora of illustrations, and comprehensive in scope, PCI Express System Architecture is an essential resource for anyone working with this important technology.

MindShare's PC System Architecture Series is a crisply written and comprehensive set of guides to the most important PC hardware standards. Books in the series are intended for use by hardware and software designers, programmers, and support personnel.

0321156307B08262003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1120 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (September 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321156307
• ISBN-13: 978-0321156303
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #104,664 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars PCI Express System Architecture, February 25, 2004

By	"steveachou" (Austin Texas) - See all my reviews

I was disappointed by this book. It took a lot of time to explain the basics of the spec but did not provide any additional design help or expanded technical info. I have had mixed results with other books for other buses in this series and this one is no better. If you carefully read the spec you will get about 97% of what is in this book. In several places the book simply uses parts of from the spec. directly. I wish the book took the time to create better figures and tables than what is in the spec. The spec is very poor on figures and tables and to use any portion of them is just a short cut in writing the book. I really wanted a book that either did not require reading the spec or a book that redid all of the poorly drawn or written parts of the spec. Also the spec is not very well organized, the book did a little bit better than the spec. in that category, but not as much as it should have. Again, it seems like a lot of short cuts were taken and no effort was made to really provide more detailed or organized information than the minimum. Perhaps that was the purpose of the book, but that is not what is needed. I just do not understand all of the positive reviews, unless the reviewers did not carefully read the spec. and did not know better. I just did not want to pay for shortcuts in the writing.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars PCI Express System Architecture, March 6, 2005

By	John Luccini "J.L." (Austin Texas) - See all my reviews

There are two problems with this book. First, it uses figures from the specification. The PCI Express specification is very poor when it comes to figures, tables and charts. I had hoped that this book was going to have some decent figures, tables and charts, and provide more design help than the specification. Instead it simply rewords the specification. The second problem is that it is out of date. There has been numerous engineering change orders generated by the PCI special interest group [sig] against rev. 1.0a. The PCI sig has just come out with revision 1.1. This book covers neither. I have ordered a different book that someone told me about. I have been told this other book has addressed the above two problems, I hope so.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pci Express System Architecture, October 6, 2003

By	"btfsloan" (Santa Clara Cal.) - See all my reviews

(...)I spent a couple of days trying to use this book and found engineering inforamation and details lacking as much as they are lacking in the spec. I am looking at other references for engineering help.