

The PnP BIOS scans the PCI bus for hardware.The system BIOS initiates the PnP BIOS.You close the computer's case and power up the computer.You open up your computer's case and plug the sound card into an empty PCI slot on the motherboard.
#WHAT IS AMD PCI DEVICE DRIVER SOFTWARE#
Variations in the software routines used by PnP BIOS developers, PCI device manufacturers and Microsoft have led many to refer to PnP as "Plug and Pray." But the overall effect of PnP has been to greatly simplify the process of upgrading your computer to add new devices or replace existing ones. While PnP makes it much easier to add devices to your computer, it is not infallible. Input/Output (I/O) configuration - This setting defines the ports used by the device for receiving and sending information.This ensures that the hardware will have the needed resources to operate properly. Memory addresses - Many devices are assigned a section of system memory for exclusive use by that device.Direct memory access (DMA) - This simply means that the device is configured to access system memory without consulting the CPU first.But PCI manages hardware interrupts at the bus bridge, allowing it to use a single system IRQ for multiple PCI devices. Before PCI, every hardware component needed a separate IRQ setting. For example, the mouse sends an IRQ every time it is moved to let the CPU know that it's doing something. Interrupt requests (IRQ) - An IRQ, also known as a hardware interrupt, is used by the various parts of a computer to get the attention of the CPU.Learn more about the development of the PCI bus and PCI card on the next page. Basically, this means that it is capable of even higher performance than VL-Bus while eliminating the potential for interference with the CPU. It provides direct access to system memory for connected devices, but uses a bridge to connect to the frontside bus and therefore to the CPU. PCI presents a hybrid of sorts between ISA and VL-Bus. Because of this, the VL-Bus was typically used only for connecting a graphics card, a component that really benefits from high-speed access to the CPU.ĭuring the early 1990s, Intel introduced a new bus standard for consideration, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. But connecting more than two devices to the VL-Bus introduced the possibility of interference with the performance of the CPU. This worked okay for a single device, or maybe even two. The VL-Bus essentially tied directly into the CPU. The cool thing about VL-Bus (named after VESA, the Video Electronics Standards Association, which created the standard) is that it was 32 bits wide and operated at the speed of the local bus, which was normally the speed of the processor itself. Key among these were Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) - which was 32 bits at 8 MHz- and Vesa Local Bus (VL-Bus). As technology advanced and the ISA bus failed to keep up, other buses were developed. Before the rise of multimedia, few hardware peripherals fully utilized the speed of the newer bus.Long-term compatibility with a large number of hardware manufacturers.We'll talk about what PCI is, how it operates and how it is used, and we'll look into the future of bus technology. We will concentrate on the bus known as the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI). In this article, you will learn about some of those buses.

If you want two monitors on your computer, you plug two graphics cards into the bus. If you want to get a better graphics card, you simply unplug the old card from the bus and plug in a new one. The advantage of a bus is that it makes parts more interchangeable. The graphics card talks to the processor using the computer's bus as a communication path. A graphics card is a small printed circuit board designed to plug into the bus. You need special hardware to drive the screen, so the screen is driven by a graphics card. For example, to see what your computer is doing, you normally use a CRT or LCD screen. Some of the components that you might want to connect include hard disks, memory, sound systems, video systems and so on. The idea of a bus is simple - it lets you connect components to the computer's processor.
