1 ACPI considerations for PCI host bridges
3 The general rule is that the ACPI namespace should describe everything the
4 OS might use unless there's another way for the OS to find it [1, 2].
6 For example, there's no standard hardware mechanism for enumerating PCI
7 host bridges, so the ACPI namespace must describe each host bridge, the
8 method for accessing PCI config space below it, the address space windows
9 the host bridge forwards to PCI (using _CRS), and the routing of legacy
10 INTx interrupts (using _PRT).
12 PCI devices, which are below the host bridge, generally do not need to be
13 described via ACPI. The OS can discover them via the standard PCI
14 enumeration mechanism, using config accesses to discover and identify
15 devices and read and size their BARs. However, ACPI may describe PCI
16 devices if it provides power management or hotplug functionality for them
17 or if the device has INTx interrupts connected by platform interrupt
18 controllers and a _PRT is needed to describe those connections.
20 ACPI resource description is done via _CRS objects of devices in the ACPI
21 namespace [2]. The _CRS is like a generalized PCI BAR: the OS can read
22 _CRS and figure out what resource is being consumed even if it doesn't have
23 a driver for the device [3]. That's important because it means an old OS
24 can work correctly even on a system with new devices unknown to the OS.
25 The new devices might not do anything, but the OS can at least make sure no
26 resources conflict with them.
28 Static tables like MCFG, HPET, ECDT, etc., are *not* mechanisms for
29 reserving address space. The static tables are for things the OS needs to
30 know early in boot, before it can parse the ACPI namespace. If a new table
31 is defined, an old OS needs to operate correctly even though it ignores the
32 table. _CRS allows that because it is generic and understood by the old
33 OS; a static table does not.
35 If the OS is expected to manage a non-discoverable device described via
36 ACPI, that device will have a specific _HID/_CID that tells the OS what
37 driver to bind to it, and the _CRS tells the OS and the driver where the
38 device's registers are.
40 PCI host bridges are PNP0A03 or PNP0A08 devices. Their _CRS should
41 describe all the address space they consume. This includes all the windows
42 they forward down to the PCI bus, as well as registers of the host bridge
43 itself that are not forwarded to PCI. The host bridge registers include
44 things like secondary/subordinate bus registers that determine the bus
45 range below the bridge, window registers that describe the apertures, etc.
46 These are all device-specific, non-architected things, so the only way a
47 PNP0A03/PNP0A08 driver can manage them is via _PRS/_CRS/_SRS, which contain
48 the device-specific details. The host bridge registers also include ECAM
49 space, since it is consumed by the host bridge.
51 ACPI defines a Consumer/Producer bit to distinguish the bridge registers
52 ("Consumer") from the bridge apertures ("Producer") [4, 5], but early
53 BIOSes didn't use that bit correctly. The result is that the current ACPI
54 spec defines Consumer/Producer only for the Extended Address Space
55 descriptors; the bit should be ignored in the older QWord/DWord/Word
56 Address Space descriptors. Consequently, OSes have to assume all
57 QWord/DWord/Word descriptors are windows.
59 Prior to the addition of Extended Address Space descriptors, the failure of
60 Consumer/Producer meant there was no way to describe bridge registers in
61 the PNP0A03/PNP0A08 device itself. The workaround was to describe the
62 bridge registers (including ECAM space) in PNP0C02 catch-all devices [6].
63 With the exception of ECAM, the bridge register space is device-specific
64 anyway, so the generic PNP0A03/PNP0A08 driver (pci_root.c) has no need to
67 New architectures should be able to use "Consumer" Extended Address Space
68 descriptors in the PNP0A03 device for bridge registers, including ECAM,
69 although a strict interpretation of [6] might prohibit this. Old x86 and
70 ia64 kernels assume all address space descriptors, including "Consumer"
71 Extended Address Space ones, are windows, so it would not be safe to
72 describe bridge registers this way on those architectures.
74 PNP0C02 "motherboard" devices are basically a catch-all. There's no
75 programming model for them other than "don't use these resources for
76 anything else." So a PNP0C02 _CRS should claim any address space that is
77 (1) not claimed by _CRS under any other device object in the ACPI namespace
78 and (2) should not be assigned by the OS to something else.
80 The PCIe spec requires the Enhanced Configuration Access Method (ECAM)
81 unless there's a standard firmware interface for config access, e.g., the
82 ia64 SAL interface [7]. A host bridge consumes ECAM memory address space
83 and converts memory accesses into PCI configuration accesses. The spec
84 defines the ECAM address space layout and functionality; only the base of
85 the address space is device-specific. An ACPI OS learns the base address
86 from either the static MCFG table or a _CBA method in the PNP0A03 device.
88 The MCFG table must describe the ECAM space of non-hot pluggable host
89 bridges [8]. Since MCFG is a static table and can't be updated by hotplug,
90 a _CBA method in the PNP0A03 device describes the ECAM space of a
91 hot-pluggable host bridge [9]. Note that for both MCFG and _CBA, the base
92 address always corresponds to bus 0, even if the bus range below the bridge
93 (which is reported via _CRS) doesn't start at 0.
96 [1] ACPI 6.2, sec 6.1:
97 For any device that is on a non-enumerable type of bus (for example, an
98 ISA bus), OSPM enumerates the devices' identifier(s) and the ACPI
99 system firmware must supply an _HID object ... for each device to
100 enable OSPM to do that.
102 [2] ACPI 6.2, sec 3.7:
103 The OS enumerates motherboard devices simply by reading through the
104 ACPI Namespace looking for devices with hardware IDs.
106 Each device enumerated by ACPI includes ACPI-defined objects in the
107 ACPI Namespace that report the hardware resources the device could
108 occupy [_PRS], an object that reports the resources that are currently
109 used by the device [_CRS], and objects for configuring those resources
110 [_SRS]. The information is used by the Plug and Play OS (OSPM) to
111 configure the devices.
113 [3] ACPI 6.2, sec 6.2:
114 OSPM uses device configuration objects to configure hardware resources
115 for devices enumerated via ACPI. Device configuration objects provide
116 information about current and possible resource requirements, the
117 relationship between shared resources, and methods for configuring
120 When OSPM enumerates a device, it calls _PRS to determine the resource
121 requirements of the device. It may also call _CRS to find the current
122 resource settings for the device. Using this information, the Plug and
123 Play system determines what resources the device should consume and
124 sets those resources by calling the device’s _SRS control method.
126 In ACPI, devices can consume resources (for example, legacy keyboards),
127 provide resources (for example, a proprietary PCI bridge), or do both.
128 Unless otherwise specified, resources for a device are assumed to be
129 taken from the nearest matching resource above the device in the device
132 [4] ACPI 6.2, sec 6.4.3.5.1, 2, 3, 4:
133 QWord/DWord/Word Address Space Descriptor (.1, .2, .3)
134 General Flags: Bit [0] Ignored
136 Extended Address Space Descriptor (.4)
137 General Flags: Bit [0] Consumer/Producer:
138 1–This device consumes this resource
139 0–This device produces and consumes this resource
141 [5] ACPI 6.2, sec 19.6.43:
142 ResourceUsage specifies whether the Memory range is consumed by
143 this device (ResourceConsumer) or passed on to child devices
144 (ResourceProducer). If nothing is specified, then
145 ResourceConsumer is assumed.
147 [6] PCI Firmware 3.2, sec 4.1.2:
148 If the operating system does not natively comprehend reserving the
149 MMCFG region, the MMCFG region must be reserved by firmware. The
150 address range reported in the MCFG table or by _CBA method (see Section
151 4.1.3) must be reserved by declaring a motherboard resource. For most
152 systems, the motherboard resource would appear at the root of the ACPI
153 namespace (under \_SB) in a node with a _HID of EISAID (PNP0C02), and
154 the resources in this case should not be claimed in the root PCI bus’s
155 _CRS. The resources can optionally be returned in Int15 E820 or
156 EFIGetMemoryMap as reserved memory but must always be reported through
157 ACPI as a motherboard resource.
159 [7] PCI Express 4.0, sec 7.2.2:
160 For systems that are PC-compatible, or that do not implement a
161 processor-architecture-specific firmware interface standard that allows
162 access to the Configuration Space, the ECAM is required as defined in
165 [8] PCI Firmware 3.2, sec 4.1.2:
166 The MCFG table is an ACPI table that is used to communicate the base
167 addresses corresponding to the non-hot removable PCI Segment Groups
168 range within a PCI Segment Group available to the operating system at
169 boot. This is required for the PC-compatible systems.
171 The MCFG table is only used to communicate the base addresses
172 corresponding to the PCI Segment Groups available to the system at
175 [9] PCI Firmware 3.2, sec 4.1.3:
176 The _CBA (Memory mapped Configuration Base Address) control method is
177 an optional ACPI object that returns the 64-bit memory mapped
178 configuration base address for the hot plug capable host bridge. The
179 base address returned by _CBA is processor-relative address. The _CBA
180 control method evaluates to an Integer.
182 This control method appears under a host bridge object. When the _CBA
183 method appears under an active host bridge object, the operating system
184 evaluates this structure to identify the memory mapped configuration
185 base address corresponding to the PCI Segment Group for the bus number
186 range specified in _CRS method. An ACPI name space object that contains
187 the _CBA method must also contain a corresponding _SEG method.