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PCIe is not master/slave. As long as the system is set up correctly the endpoint can master the bus and read/write the PC's memory space, such as main memory.
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I thought that was the case - but I only used it in a simple set up with the dev card only acting as a slave - as a port to a dual port ram between PC and another processor.
What was difficult was having only an avalon streaming port as the stand alone hard core (not using Qsys) would only provide a streaming output. Here I had to write logic to decode and reply to the packets. Hence the reason for the book.