Locked Operations on PCI Express

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This paper provides information about locked operations on PCI Express. A locked operation is the mechanism used to execute a sequence of transactions atomically on a PCI Express Link. This paper also discusses the impact of using locked operations with PCI Express for the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems.

The information in this paper applies to the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows Vista
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows 2000

This paper provides device, driver, and system design recommendations to help device manufacturers, driver developers, firmware engineers, and system manufacturers understand the proper handling of locked operations and the impact locked operations have on device, driver, and system design.

For the purposes of this paper, the term "system" refers to the core chipset, the CPU, and the system's firmware code, which is also known as the basic input/output system (BIOS).

This paper assumes that the reader has a good understanding of PCI and PCI Express. All PCI specifications referenced in this paper are available on the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) Web site at: http://www.pcisig.com/home .

For the purposes of this paper, PCI Local Bus Specification Revision 2.3 is referred to as "PCI Local Bus Specification," and PCI Express Base Specification Revision 1.0a is referred to as "PCI Express Base Specification."

Included in this paper:

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