PCI Bus Demystified

Doug Abbott is founder and president of Intellimetrix, Inc., a computer hardware design firm in Silver City, New Mexico. He has conducted seminars on PCI bus theory and design for such companies as Intel and Sun Microsystems.

"Aimed at hardware and software designers, this book is a practical guide to the PCI Bus found in every modem PC. The guide begins with an overview of key PCI Bus concepts, including commands, read-and-write transfers, memory and I/O addressing, error handling, and interrupts. It then goes on to more advanced topics, such as PCI-to-PCI bridge architecture and the PCI BIOS. (One possible design application for the PCI Bus is for developing an interface card for controlling a robot from a PC.)

The accompanying CD-ROM includes a free, fully searchable eBook version of the text. In addition, a Web site for the book (www.pcidemystified) covers new PCI developments, offers supplemental materials, and provides a reader's forum."—Poptronics

PCI Bus Demystified Gets Down to Basics:
"PCI is the mainstay for PC and many embedded-system designs, therefore designers need to be aware of its methods, mechanisms, and nuances. PCI Bus Demystified, written by Doug Abbott for LLH Technology Publishing, does this in enough technical detail to impress PCI interface designers and simply enough to enlighten engineers and programmers acquainted with the PCI bus from plugging in a few PCI adapters.

The book starts with a good overview of ISA and PCI and then dives into the bus protocol, along with optional and advanced features. The section on mechanical and electrical design will be handy for those dealing with motherboard or daughterboard designs, as well as those interested in all aspects of the PCI bus.

Standard and Compact PCI hardware is presented but the latest MiniPCI specification is not addressed. The latter is of interest to laptop designers and embedded designers that are space limited. Compact PCI is well addressed and probably the most important to embedded designers.

All aspects of PCI design and standards are examined, including hot-plug and hot-swap support, "plug and play"operation, and PCI BIOS support. Overall, the topics are presented well and useful for learning and reference purposes."—Bill Wong, Embedded Technologies/Software Editor, Electronic Design

"...enough technical detail to impress PCI interface designers and simple enough to enlighten engineers and programmers acquainted with the PCI bus from plugging in a few PCI adapters."—ELECTRONIC DESIGN