The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 12, 1994
Filed:
Dec. 02, 1991
Stephen P Thompson, Delray Beach, FL (US);
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A computer adapter card (204) includes a plurality of setup registers (224-226) for receiving setup parameters during initialization of the computer system. Each of the setup registers of an adapter card is accessed at the same address as the corresponding setup register of all other adapter cards in the system. The adapter card is designed to be connected to a computer bus (201) that does not include individual setup lines for each of the adapter cards in the system. To select an individual adapter card, each adapter card includes a register (214) for storing a programmable adapter card number, a plurality of switches (218) for selecting a switch selectable adapter card number, and a comparator (216) for comparing the programmable adapter card number to the switch selectable adapter card number. When an adapter card is initially installed in the computer system, the user sets the switches to correspond to the number of the adapter card slot into which the card is inserted. Thus, the switches of each adapter card in the system are set to a unique switch seleted number. When the comparator detects a match between the programmable and switch selectable adapter card numbers, and when the adapter card is placed in the setup mode, the setup registers (224-226) of the selected adapter card are enabled, such that the computer system can write setup parameters to, and read setup parameters from the setup registers of the selected adapter card.