Appendix B: Terminology; Table 156: Terminology - Broadcom NetXtreme/NetLink BCM5718 Series Programmer's Manual

BCM5718 Programmer's Guide
A p p e n d i x B : Te r m i n o l o g y
Term
BD
Deferred Procedure Call
(DPC)
Expansion ROM
Host Coalescing
Interrupt Distribution Queue The Ethernet controller supports four interrupt distribution queues per class of
Interrupt Service Routine
(ISR)
Pre-boot execution (PXE)
Receive BD Initiator
Receive Data and Receive
BD Initiator
Receive Data Completion
Receive Queue Placement
Send BD Initiator
Send Data Initiator
Broadcom
®
January 29, 2016 • 5718-PG108-R

Table 156: Terminology

Definition
Buffer Descriptor.
The ISR may schedule a O/S callback to process interrupts at a later time.
PCI devices may optionally expose device specific programs to BIOS. For
example, network devices may place PXE boot code in their expansion ROM
region.
A hardware block which the Ethernet controller status block. The hardware will
drive a line interrupt or MSI.
service. The rules engine may place traffic into RX return rings based on rules
checking. Within each class of service, the traffic may further be organized in
Interrupt Distribution Queues. For example, frames with errors may be given
lower data path priority over frames without errors, all within the same class of
service (RX Return Ring).
A procedure where device interrupts are processed.
An industry-standard client/server interface that allows networked computers
that are not yet loaded with an operating system to be configured and booted
remotely.
The hardware block that DMA's BDs when receive ring indices are written.
The hardware block the updates packet buffers, in host memory, after an
Ethernet frame is received. The hardware block will also update the BD with
information like checksum and VLAN Tags.
The hardware block that updates the host coalescing engine after the packet
buffers and BD are DMAed to host memory.
The hardware block that routes a categorized frame to one of sixteen RX Return
rings.
The hardware block that is activated when a Send producer index is updated by
host software. The hardware block will DMA a BD from host memory.
The hardware block updates the DMAs in the packet buffers from host memory.
The packet buffers are DMAed after the BD has been moved to device local
memory.
Terminology
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