Chapter 8

Input/Output Overview

Conceptually, Alpha systems can consist of processors, memory, a processor-memory inter- connect (PMI), I/O buses, bridges, and I/O devices.

Figure 8–1shows the Alpha system overview.

Figure 8–1: Alpha System Overview

Processor-Memory Interconnect

I/O Device

Processor

Memory

Bridge

I/O Bus

I/O Device

I/O Device

As shown in Figure 8–1,processors, memory, and possibly I/O devices, are connected by a PMI.

A bridge connects an I/O bus to the system, either directly to the PMI or through another I/O bus. The I/O bus address space is available to the processor either directly or indirectly. Indi- rect access is provided through either an I/O mailbox or an I/O mapping mechanism. The I/O mapping mechanism includes provisions for mapping between PMI and I/O bus addresses and access to I/O bus operations.

Alpha I/O operations can include:

Accesses between the processor and an I/O device across the PMI

Accesses between the processor and an I/O device across an I/O bus

DMA accesses — I/O devices initiating reads and writes to memory

Processor interrupts requested by devices

Bus-specific I/O accesses

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Compaq ECQD2KCTE manual Input/Output Overview