PCI Express Device Layers

Overview

The PCI Express specification defines a layered architecture for device design as shown in Figure 2-10 on page 70. The layers consist of a Transaction Layer, a Data Link Layer and a Physical layer. The layers can be further divided vertically into two, a transmit portion that processes outbound traffic and a receive portion that processes inbound traffic. However, a device design does not have to implement a layered architecture as long as the functionality required by the specification is supported.

Figure 2-10. PCI Express Device Layers

The goal of this section is to describe the function of each layer and ...

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