Glossary
This glossary contains an alphabetical list of terms, phrases, and abbreviations used in this document.
Term
Definition
AC
Alternating current
ACR
Architecture Change Request
AD
Address Data line
Adapter
A device which attaches a device to a bus or which converts one
bus to another; for example, an I/O Adapter (IOA), a PCI Host Bridge (PHB),
or a NUMA fabric attachment device.
addr
Address
Architecture
The hardware/software interface definition or software module to
software module interface definition.
ASCII
American National Standards Code for Information
Interchange
ASR
Address Space Register
BAT
Block Address Translation
BE
Big-Endian or Branch Trace Enable bit in the
MSR (MSRBE)
BIO
Bottom of Peripheral Input/Output Space
BIOS
Basic Input/Output system
BIST
Built in Self Test
Boundedly undefined
Describes some addresses and registers which when referenced provide
one of a small set of predefined results.
BPA
Bulk Power Assembly. Refers to components used for power distribution
from a central point in the rack.
BPM
Bottom of Peripheral Memory
BSCA
Bottom of System Control Area
BSM
Bottom of System Memory
BUID
Bus Unit Identifier. The high-order part of an interrupt source number
which is used for hardware routing purposes by the platform.
CCIN
Custom Card Identification Number
CD-ROM
Compact Disk Read-Only Memory
CIS
Client Interface Service
CMO
Cooperative Memory Over-commitment option. See
for more information.
CMOS
Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
Conventional PCI
Behavior or features that conform to .
CPU
Central Processing Unit
CR
Condition Register
CTR
Count Register
DABR
Data Address Breakpoint Register
DAR
Data Address Register
DASD
Direct Access Storage Device (a synonym for “hard disk”)
DBAT
Data Block Address Translation
DC
Direct current
DEC
Decrementer
DIMM
Dual In-line Memory Module
DMA
Direct Memory Access
DMA Read
A data transfer from System Memory to I/O. A DMA Read Request
is the inbound operation and the DMA Read Reply (or Read Completion) is the
outbound data coming back from a DMA Read Request.
DMA Write
A data transfer to System Memory from I/O or a Message Signalled Interrupt (MSI) DMA Write. This is an inbound operation.
DOS
Disk OS
DR
Data Relocate bit in MSR (MSRDR)
DRA
Deviation Risk Assessment
DRAM
Dynamic Random Access Memory
DRC
Delayed Read Completion. A transaction that has completed
on the destination bus and is now moving toward the originating bus to complete.
DR Connector.
DR entity
An entity that can participate in DR operations. That is, an entity
that can be added or removed from the platform while the platform power is on and the
system remains operational.
DRR
Delayed Read Request. A transaction that must complete on the destination bus before completing on the originating bus.
DSISR
Data Storage Interrupt Status Register
DWR
Delayed Write Request. A transaction that must complete on the destination bus before completing on the originating bus.
EA
Effective Address
EAR
External Access Register
ECC
Error Checking and Correction
EE
External interrupt Enable bit in the MSR (MSREE)
EEH
Enhance I/O Error Handling
EEPROM
Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
EPOW
Environment and Power Warning
Error Log indicator An amber indicator that indicates that the user needs to
look at the error log or problem determination procedures, in order to determine the cause.
Previously called System Information (Attention).
FCode
A computer programming language defined by the OF standard which is semantically
similar to the Forth programming language, but is encoded as a sequence of binary byte codes
representing a defined set of Forth words.
FE0
Floating-point Exception mode 0 bit in the MSR (MSRFE0)
FE1
Floating-point Exception mode 1bit in the MSR (MSRFE1)
FIR
Fault Isolation Registers
FLR
Function Level Reset (see PCI Express documentation). An optional reset for PCI Express
functions that allows resetting a single function of a multi-function IOA.
FP
Floating-Point available bit in the MSR (MSRFP)
FPSCR
Floating-Point Status And Control Register
FRU
Field Replaceable Unit
FSM
Finite State Machine
GB
Gigabytes - as used in this document it is 2 raised to the power of 30
HB
Host Bridge
HMC
Hardware Management Console - used generically to refer to the system
component that performs platform administration function where ever physically located.
The HMC is outside of this architecture and may be implemented in multiple ways.
Examples include: a special HMC applications in another system, an external appliance,
or in an LPAR partition using the Virtual Management Channel (VMC) interface to the
hypervisor.
Hz
Hertz
IBAT
Instruction block address translation
ID
Identification
IDE
Integrated Device Electronics
IDU
Interrupt Delivery Unit
IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
I2C
Inter Integrated-circuit Communications
I/O
nput/Output
I/O bus master
Any entity other than a processor, cache,
memory controller, or host bridge which supplies both address and data in
write transactions or supplies the address and is the sink for the data in
read transactions.
I/O device
Generally refers to any entity that is connected
to an IOA (usually through a cable), but in some cases may refer to the IOA
itself (that is, a device in the device tree that happens to be used for I/O
operations).
I/O Drawer
An enclosure in a rack that holds at least one PHB and at
least one IOA.
ILE
Interrupt Little-Endian bit in MSR (MSRILE)
Instr
Instruction
Interrupt Number
See Interrupt Vector below.
Interrupt Vector
The identifier associated with a specific interrupt source.
The identifier’s value is loaded into the source’s Interrupt Vector Register and
is read from the Interrupt Delivery Unit’s Interrupt Acknowledge Register.
IOA
I/O Adapter. A device which attaches to a physical bus which is capable
of supporting I/O (a physical IOA) or logical bus (a virtual IOA). The term “IOA”
without the usage of the qualifier “physical” or “virtual” will be
used to designate a physical IOA. Virtual IOAs are defined further in
.
In PCI terms, an IOA may be defined by a unique combination of its assigned
bus number and device number, but not necessarily including its function number.
That is, an IOA may be a single or multi-function device, unless otherwise specified by
the context of the text. In the context of a PCIe I/O Virtualized (IOV) device (not to be
confused with a virtual IOA), an IOA is a single or multiple function device (for example, a
PCIe Virtual Function (VF) or multiple VFs). An IOA function may or may not have its own set of
resources, that is may or may not be in its own Partitionable Endpoint (PE) domain
(see also
).
IOA function
That part of an IOA that deals with a specific part of the
IOA as defined by the configuration space “Function” part of Bus/Device/Function.
For single-function IOAs, the IOA Function and the IOA are synonymous.
IP
Interrupt Prefix bit in MSR (MSRIP)
IPI
Interprocessor Interrupt
IR
Instruction Relocate bit in MSR register (MSRIR) or infrared
ISF
Interrupt 64-bit processor mode bit in the MSR (MSRISF)
ISO
International Standards Organization
ISR
Interrupt Source Register
ISU
Interrupt Source Unit
KB
Kilobytes - as used in this document it is 2 raised to the power of 10
KHz
Kilo Hertz
LAN
Local Area Network
LCD
Liquid Crystal Display
LE
Little-Endian bit in MSR (MSRLE) or Little-Endian
LED
Light Emitting Diode
LMB
Logical Memory Block. The Block of logical memory addresses associated with a dynamically
reconfigurable memory node.
Load
A Load Request is the outbound (from the processor) operation
and the Load Reply is the inbound data coming back from a
Load Request. When it relates to I/O operations, this is an
MMIO Load .
LR
Link Register
LSb
Least Significant bit
LSB
Least Significant Byte
LSI
Level Sensitive Interrupt
LUN
Logical Unit Number
L1
Primary cache
L2
Secondary cache
MB
Megabytes - as used in this document it is 2 raised to the power of 20
ME
Machine check Enable
MMIO
Memory Mapped I/O. This refers to the mapping of the address space required
by an I/O device for Load or Store operations into
the system’s address space.
MES
Miscellaneous Equipment Specification
MFM
Modified frequency modulation
MHz
Mega Hertz
MOD
Address modification bit in the MSR
(MSRMOD)
MP
Multiprocessor
MSb
Most Significant bit
MSB
Most Significant Byte
MSI
Message Signalled Interrupt
MSR
Machine State Register
MTT
Multi-TCE-Table option. See
.
N/A
Not Applicable
Nibble
Refers to the first or last four bits in an 8 bit byte
NUMA
Non-Uniform Memory Access
NUMA fabric
Mechanism and method for connecting the multiple nodes of a NUMA system
NVRAM
Nonvolatile Random Access Memory
OF
Open Firmware
OP
Operator
OS
Operating System
OUI
Organizationally Unique Identifier
PA
Processor Architecture
PAP
Privileged Access Password
LoPAR
Used within the Linux on Power Architecture
Reference documents to denote: (1) the architectural requirements specified
by the Linux on Power Architecture Reference document, (2) the Linux on Power Architecture
Reference documents themself, and (3) as an adjective to qualify an entity as being
related to this architecture.
Partitionable Endpoint
This refers to the I/O granule that may be treated as one for
purposes of assignment to an OS (for example, to an LPAR partition). May be an
I/O adapter (IOA), or groups of IOAs and bridges, or portions of IOAs. PE granularity
supported by the hardware may be finer than is supported by the firmware. Grouping
of multiple PEs into one DR entity may limit assignment of a the separate PEs to different
LPAR partitions. See also DR entity.
PC
Personal Computer
PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect. An all-encompassing term referring to
conventional PCI, PCI-X, and PCI Express.
PCI bus
A general term referring to either the PCI Local Bus, as
specified in and
for conventional PCI and PCI-X, or a PCI Express link, as specified in
for PCI Express.
PCI Express
Behavior or features that conform to
.
PCI link
A PCI Express link, as specified in .
PCI-X
Behavior or features that conform to .
PD
Presence Detect
PE
When referring to the body of the LoPAR, this refers to a Partitionable
Endpoint.
PE has a different meaning relative to
(see
for that definition).
PEM
Partition Energy Management option. See
.
Peripheral I/O Space
The range of real addresses which are assigned
to the I/O Space of a Host Bridge (HB) and which are sufficient to contain all of
the Load and Store address space requirements of all the devices in the I/O Space
of the I/O bus that is generated by the HB. A keyboard controller is an example of
a device which may require Peripheral I/O Space addresses.
Peripheral Memory Space
The range of real addresses which are assigned to the Memory
Space of a Host Bridge (HB) and which are sufficient to contain all of the Load and
Store address space requirements of the devices in the Memory Space of the I/O bus
that is generated by the HB. The frame buffer of a graphics adapter is an example
of a device which may require Peripheral Memory Space addresses.
Peripheral Space
Refers to the physical address space which may
be accessed by a processor, but which is controlled by a host bridge. At least one
peripheral space must be present and it is referred to by the suffix 0. A host bridge
will typically provide access to at least a memory space and possibly to an I/O
space.
PHB
PCI Host Bridge
PIC
Programmable Interrupt Controller
PIR
Processor Identification Register
Platform
Refers to the hardware plus firmware portion of a system composed of hardware,
firmware, and OS.
Platform firmware
Refers to all firmware on a system including the software or firmware in a
support processor.
Plug-in I/O card
A card which can be plugged into an I/O
connector in a platform and which contains one or more IOAs and potentially
one or more I/O bridges or switches.
Plug-in Card
An entity that plugs into a physical slot.
PMW
Posted memory write. A transaction that has complete on the
originating bus before completing on the destination bus
PnP
Plug and Play
POP
Power On Password
POST
Power-On Self Test
PR
Privileged bit in the MSR (MSRPR)
Processor Architecture
Used throughout this document to
mean compliance with the requirements specified in
.
Processor revision number
A 16-bit number that distinguishes between various releases
of a particular processor version, for example different engineering change
levels.
PVN
Processor Version Number. Uniquely determines the particular
processor and PA version.
PVR
Processor Version Register. A register in each processor
that identifies its type. The contents of the PVR include the processor
version number and processor revision number.
RAID
Redundant Array of Independent Disks
RAM
Random Access Memory
RAS
Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability
Real address
A real address results from doing address
translation on an effective address when address translation is enabled.
If address translation is not enabled, the real address is the same as the
effective address. An attempt to fetch from, load from, or store to a real
address that is not physically present in the machine may result in a
machine check interrupt.
Reserved
The term “reserved” is used within this
document to refer to bits in registers or areas in the address space
which should not be referenced by software except as described in this
document.
Reserved for firmware use
Refers to a given location or bit which may not be used by
software, but are used by firmware.
Reserved for future use
Refers to areas of address space or bits in registers which may be
used by future versions of this architecture.
RI
Recoverable interrupt bit in the MSR (MSRRI)
RISC
Reduced Instruction Set Computing
RMA
Real Mode Area. The first block of logical memory addresses
owned by a logical partition, containing the storage that may be accessed with
translate off.
ROM
Read Only Memory
Root Complex
A PCI Express root complex as specified in
.
RPN
Real Page Number
RTAS
Run-Time Abstraction Services
RTC
Real Time Clock
SAE
Log Service Action Event log
SCC
Serial Communications Controller
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface
SE
Single-step trace enabled bit in the MSR
(MSRSE)
Service Focal Point
The common point of control in the system for handling all
service actions
Serviceable Event
Serviceable Events are platform,
global, regional and local error events that require a service action
and possibly a call home when the serviceable event must be handled by a
service representative or at least reported to the service provider.
Activation of the Error Log indicator notifies the customer of the event
and the event indicates to the customer that there must be some intervention
to rectify the problem. The intervention may be a service action that the
customer can perform or it may require a service provider.
SES
Storage Enclosure Services (can also mean SCSI Enclosure
Services in relation to SCSI storage)
SF
Processor 32-bit or 64-bit processor mode bit in the MSR
(MSRSF)
SFP
Service Focal Point
Shrink-wrap OS
A single version of an OS that runs on all
compliant platforms.
Shrink-wrap Application
A single version of an application program
that runs on all compliant platforms with the applicable OS.
SMP
Symmetric multiprocessor
SMS
System Management Services
Snarf
An industry colloquialism for cache-to-cache
transfer. A typical scenario is as follows: (1) cache miss from cache A,
(2) line found modified in cache B, (3) cache B performs castout of modified
line, and (4) cache A allocates the modified line as it is being written back
to memory.
Snoop
The act of interrogating a cache for the presence of a
line, usually in response to another party on a shared bus attempting to
allocate that line.
SPRG
Special Purpose Registers for General use
SR
System Registers
SRC
Service Reference Code
SRN
Service Request Number
Store
A Store Request is an
outbound (from the processor) operation. When it relates to I/O
operations, this is an MMIO Store.
System
Refers to the collection of hardware, system firmware,
and OS software which comprise a computer model.
System address space
The total range of addressability as established by the
processor implementation.
System Control Area
Refers to a range of addresses which
contains the system ROM(s) and an unarchitected, reserved, platform-dependent
area used by firmware and Run-Time Abstraction services for control of the
platform. The ROM areas are defined by the OF properties in the
openprom and os-rom nodes
of the OF device tree.
System Information (Attention) indicator
See Error Log indicator.
System firmware
Refers to the collection of all firmware on a system
including OF, RTAS and any legacy firmware.
System Memory
Refers to those areas of memory which form
a coherency domain with respect to the PA processor or processors that
execute application software on a system.
System software
Refers to the combination of OS software,
device driver software, and any hardware abstraction software, but
excludes the application software.
TB
Time Base
TCE
Translation Control Entry
TLB
Translation Look-aside Buffer
TOD
Time Of Day
TOSM
Top of system memory
TPM
Top of Peripheral Memory
Trusted Platform Module
tty
Teletypewriter or ASCII character driven
terminal device
UI
User Interface
USB
Universal Serial Bus
v
Volt
VGA
Video Graphics Array
VMC
Virtual Management Channel
VPD
Vital Product Data
VPNH
Virtual Processor Home Node option. See
.