Drew Northup wrote:
>
> I was reading some about PCI last night, and have a question. Is the
> CPU a PCI client like everything else, or not?
The North Bridge resides on multiple buses. For example, it
sits on the processor (host) bus. There are unique electrical
signalings there and different requirements than on the PCI bus.
Ideally you could design a NB to handle various processor types
so you don't want to require processors to be "PCI devices".
Also sits on the memory bus. Here you optimize the bus for
memory transfers. Ideally you could develop a NB based on
various memory types, so you don't want a memory requirement
of being a "PCI device" either.
And of course, the NB is on the PCI bus. On this bus, the
devices have to comply with the PCI spec. They respond to
PCI protocol.
The AGP bus is implemented creatively on at least the i440BX.
It's implemented as another "logical" PCI bus, but within the
NB.
-Kevin
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kevin Lawton [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MandrakeSoft, Inc. Plex86 developer
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/ http://www.plex86.org/
