+The idea is to prevent two devices colliding on the same address range.
+
+[ See OS BUG comment above. Currently (2.6.19), The driver can only
+ determine MMIO and IO Port resource availability _after_ calling
+ pci_enable_device(). ]
+
+Generic flavors of pci_request_region() are request_mem_region()
+(for MMIO ranges) and request_region() (for IO Port ranges).
+Use these for address resources that are not described by "normal" PCI
+BARs.
+
+Also see pci_request_selected_regions() below.
+
+
+3.3 Set the DMA mask size
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+[ If anything below doesn't make sense, please refer to
+ Documentation/DMA-API.txt. This section is just a reminder that
+ drivers need to indicate DMA capabilities of the device and is not
+ an authoritative source for DMA interfaces. ]
+
+While all drivers should explicitly indicate the DMA capability
+(e.g. 32 or 64 bit) of the PCI bus master, devices with more than
+32-bit bus master capability for streaming data need the driver
+to "register" this capability by calling pci_set_dma_mask() with
+appropriate parameters. In general this allows more efficient DMA
+on systems where System RAM exists above 4G _physical_ address.
+
+Drivers for all PCI-X and PCIe compliant devices must call
+pci_set_dma_mask() as they are 64-bit DMA devices.
+
+Similarly, drivers must also "register" this capability if the device
+can directly address "consistent memory" in System RAM above 4G physical
+address by calling pci_set_consistent_dma_mask().
+Again, this includes drivers for all PCI-X and PCIe compliant devices.
+Many 64-bit "PCI" devices (before PCI-X) and some PCI-X devices are
+64-bit DMA capable for payload ("streaming") data but not control
+("consistent") data.
+
+
+3.4 Setup shared control data
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Once the DMA masks are set, the driver can allocate "consistent" (a.k.a. shared)
+memory. See Documentation/DMA-API.txt for a full description of
+the DMA APIs. This section is just a reminder that it needs to be done
+before enabling DMA on the device.
+
+
+3.5 Initialize device registers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Some drivers will need specific "capability" fields programmed
+or other "vendor specific" register initialized or reset.
+E.g. clearing pending interrupts.
+
+
+3.6 Register IRQ handler
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+While calling request_irq() is the the last step described here,
+this is often just another intermediate step to initialize a device.
+This step can often be deferred until the device is opened for use.
+
+All interrupt handlers for IRQ lines should be registered with IRQF_SHARED
+and use the devid to map IRQs to devices (remember that all PCI IRQ lines
+can be shared).
+
+request_irq() will associate an interrupt handler and device handle
+with an interrupt number. Historically interrupt numbers represent
+IRQ lines which run from the PCI device to the Interrupt controller.
+With MSI and MSI-X (more below) the interrupt number is a CPU "vector".
+
+request_irq() also enables the interrupt. Make sure the device is
+quiesced and does not have any interrupts pending before registering
+the interrupt handler.
+
+MSI and MSI-X are PCI capabilities. Both are "Message Signaled Interrupts"
+which deliver interrupts to the CPU via a DMA write to a Local APIC.
+The fundamental difference between MSI and MSI-X is how multiple
+"vectors" get allocated. MSI requires contiguous blocks of vectors
+while MSI-X can allocate several individual ones.
+
+MSI capability can be enabled by calling pci_enable_msi() or
+pci_enable_msix() before calling request_irq(). This causes
+the PCI support to program CPU vector data into the PCI device
+capability registers.
+
+If your PCI device supports both, try to enable MSI-X first.
+Only one can be enabled at a time. Many architectures, chip-sets,
+or BIOSes do NOT support MSI or MSI-X and the call to pci_enable_msi/msix
+will fail. This is important to note since many drivers have
+two (or more) interrupt handlers: one for MSI/MSI-X and another for IRQs.
+They choose which handler to register with request_irq() based on the
+return value from pci_enable_msi/msix().
+
+There are (at least) two really good reasons for using MSI:
+1) MSI is an exclusive interrupt vector by definition.
+ This means the interrupt handler doesn't have to verify
+ its device caused the interrupt.
+
+2) MSI avoids DMA/IRQ race conditions. DMA to host memory is guaranteed
+ to be visible to the host CPU(s) when the MSI is delivered. This
+ is important for both data coherency and avoiding stale control data.
+ This guarantee allows the driver to omit MMIO reads to flush
+ the DMA stream.
+
+See drivers/infiniband/hw/mthca/ or drivers/net/tg3.c for examples
+of MSI/MSI-X usage.
+
+
+
+4. PCI device shutdown
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When a PCI device driver is being unloaded, most of the following
+steps need to be performed:
+
+ Disable the device from generating IRQs
+ Release the IRQ (free_irq())
+ Stop all DMA activity
+ Release DMA buffers (both streaming and consistent)
+ Unregister from other subsystems (e.g. scsi or netdev)
+ Disable device from responding to MMIO/IO Port addresses
+ Release MMIO/IO Port resource(s)
+
+
+4.1 Stop IRQs on the device
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+How to do this is chip/device specific. If it's not done, it opens
+the possibility of a "screaming interrupt" if (and only if)
+the IRQ is shared with another device.
+
+When the shared IRQ handler is "unhooked", the remaining devices
+using the same IRQ line will still need the IRQ enabled. Thus if the
+"unhooked" device asserts IRQ line, the system will respond assuming
+it was one of the remaining devices asserted the IRQ line. Since none
+of the other devices will handle the IRQ, the system will "hang" until
+it decides the IRQ isn't going to get handled and masks the IRQ (100,000
+iterations later). Once the shared IRQ is masked, the remaining devices
+will stop functioning properly. Not a nice situation.
+
+This is another reason to use MSI or MSI-X if it's available.
+MSI and MSI-X are defined to be exclusive interrupts and thus
+are not susceptible to the "screaming interrupt" problem.
+
+
+4.2 Release the IRQ
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Once the device is quiesced (no more IRQs), one can call free_irq().
+This function will return control once any pending IRQs are handled,
+"unhook" the drivers IRQ handler from that IRQ, and finally release
+the IRQ if no one else is using it.
+
+
+4.3 Stop all DMA activity
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+It's extremely important to stop all DMA operations BEFORE attempting
+to deallocate DMA control data. Failure to do so can result in memory
+corruption, hangs, and on some chip-sets a hard crash.
+
+Stopping DMA after stopping the IRQs can avoid races where the
+IRQ handler might restart DMA engines.