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PCI_Prober-1.2
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PCIprober Readme
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PCIprober -- A PCI bus information utility
Introduction
PCIprober is a system information utility that lets you find out details
about PCI cards and devices installed in your computer. PCIprober will
detect both cards in slots and on-board PCI chips connected to the bus.
You can read out all the necessary information to access the devices
using your own software, to check if your card(s) are working, or just
to satisfy your curiosity.
Operation
When you launch PCIprober, you will be presented with information about your
computer's PCI bus master. Details of the different data fields are given
below. By using the pop-up menu, you can look at the different types of
registers available. By pulling down the PCI menu, you can select and
examine the various PCI devices installed in your system. Shaded menu items
in the PCI menu are empty slots. If you wish, you can save all the PCI bus
information to a file by using the File menu save option.
System requirements
• System 7.5.2 or higher
• PowerPC-based Macintosh with at least 1 Megabyte of free RAM
• Motherboard with PCI bus
Version History
Version 1.2
• Fixed problems on G3 Macs
• Fixed problem in saving data to a file
• Recompiled with Codewarrier Pro 2.
Version 1.1
• First release.
Author Contact Info
David Salamon
San Jose, California
salamon@slip.net
Description of the PCI information fields
Bus Master
Name, Model
The device name and model of your PCI bus master.
Clock Frequency
The PCI bus frequency in your computer.
Address Width
The number of bits wide addresses can be on the bus
Data Width
The number of bits wide data can be on the bus
PCI Cards and Chips
Name
The name of your device. If the device has an Open Firmware ROM (see below),
the MacOS constructs the name by combining the vendor name (typically the company's
US stock symbol), a comma, and the model name of the device. If the device has no Open
Firmware ROM, the MacOS generates a name by using "pcixxxx,yyyy" where xxxx is
the vendor ID number and yyyy is the device ID number.
Device
This is either the slot number or "on-board", indicating that the device is an on-board chip.
Vendor ID
The vendor ID is a 16 bit number given out to each manufacturer uniquely by the
PCI Special Interest Group (PIC SIG) which governs the bus standard.
Device ID
The Device ID is a 16 bit number assigned by the manufacturer to designate the device.
Revision ID
The Revision ID is an 8 bit number assigned by the manufacturer of the device.
MacOS driver
This indicates if a device driver has been registered with the MacOS to operate
this card. The driver can come from the card's ROM or from an extension on your
hard disk.
Class Code
This is a 24 bit register which identifies the basic function of the device.
DEVSEL speed
Defines the device-select timing for the card or chip.
Max Latency
How often the device needs access to the PCI bus when acting as bus master.
Min Grant
How long the device would like to retain PCI bus ownership when it initiates
a transaction as bus master.
Fast Back-to-Back
Whether or not the device supports fast back-to-back transactions.
Max Power Usage
The maximum power the device might consume.
FCode ROM present
Indicates whether the device has an Open Firmware ROM present. This is a ROM
containing a system-independent program written in tokenized Forth (an
interpreted language) to configure the board regardless of the host processor.
To date, it seems only Apple and workstation vendors such as Sun Microystems
have embraced Open Firmware.
Address Locations
Logical Address
This is the property Apple calls the "AAPL,address". It is a vector of 32 bit
wide loigcal addresses, where the nth address corresponds to the nth assigned
physical address. This is the address you should use to access the device.
Physical Address
The assigned physical address of the device in memory space.
Register Address
The device's physical address request. Shows the size of the memory request also.
References
Shanley, Tom and Anderson, Don, "PCI System Architecture, 3rd Edition",
1995: Addison -Wesley, Inc.
"Designing PCI Cards and Drivers for Power Macintosh Computers", 1996: Apple
Developer Press.