Processor Register Introduction - Intel 2ND GENERATION CORE PROCESSOR FAMILY DESKTOP - DATASHEET VOLUME 2 01-2011 Datasheet

Processor Configuration Registers
2.4

Processor Register Introduction

The processor contains two sets of software accessible registers, accessed using the
Host processor I/O address space — Control registers and internal configuration
registers.
• Control registers are I/O mapped into the processor I/O space, which control
access to PCI and PCI Express configuration space (see
• Internal configuration registers residing within the processor are partitioned into
three logical device register sets ("logical" since they reside within a single physical
device). The first register set is dedicated to Host Bridge functionality (that is,
DRAM configuration, other chipset operating parameters and optional features).
The second register block is dedicated to Host-PCI Express Bridge functions
(controls PCI Express interface configurations and operating parameters). The third
register block is for the internal graphics functions.
The processor internal registers (I/O Mapped, Configuration and PCI Express Extended
Configuration registers) are accessible by the Host processor. The registers that reside
within the lower 256 bytes of each device can be accessed as Byte, Word (16 bit), or
DWord (32 bit) quantities, with the exception of CONFIG_ADDRESS, which can only be
accessed as a DWord. All multi-byte numeric fields use "little-endian" ordering (that is,
lower addresses contain the least significant parts of the field). Registers that reside in
bytes 256 through 4095 of each device may only be accessed using memory mapped
transactions in DWord (32 bit) quantities.
Some of the processor registers described in this section contain reserved bits. These
bits are labeled "Reserved". Software must deal correctly with fields that are reserved.
On reads, software must use appropriate masks to extract the defined bits and not rely
on reserved bits being any particular value. On writes, software must ensure that the
values of reserved bit positions are preserved. That is, the values of reserved bit
positions must first be read, merged with the new values for other bit positions and
then written back. Note the software does not need to perform read, merge, and write
operation for the Configuration Address Register.
In addition to reserved bits within a register, the processor contains address locations
in the configuration space of the Host Bridge entity that are marked either "Reserved"
or "Intel Reserved". The processor responds to accesses to Reserved address locations
by completing the host cycle. When a Reserved register location is read, a zero value is
returned. (Reserved registers can be 8-, 16-, or 32 bits in size). Writes to Reserved
registers have no effect on the processor. Registers that are marked as Intel Reserved
must not be modified by system software. Writes to Intel Reserved registers may cause
system failure. Reads from Intel Reserved registers may return a non-zero value.
Upon a Full Reset, the processor sets its entire set of internal configuration registers to
predetermined default states. Some register values at reset are determined by external
strapping options. The default state represents the minimum functionality feature set
required to successfully bringing up the system. Hence, it does not represent the
optimal system configuration. It is the responsibility of the system initialization
software (usually BIOS) to properly determine the DRAM configurations, operating
parameters and optional system features that are applicable, and to program the
processor registers accordingly.
Datasheet, Volume 2
Section 2.4.1).
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