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:
Jun. 25, 1996
Filed:
Feb. 28, 1994
Jeffrey D Harper, Austin, TX (US);
James C Peterson, Round Rock, TX (US);
James D Touchton, Davie, FL (US);
Wendel G Voigt, Austin, TX (US);
Gregory M Vrana, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Data processing apparatus performs automatic hardware device identification and system setup in computer systems that have a Programmable Option Select (POS) feature, where the system includes multi-card adapters (adapters with attached daughter card(s)), and/or multi-card planar complexes (system boards with pluggable processor complexes and/or I/O risers). In particular, the apparatus uniquely identifies the aforementioned multi-card devices utilizing unique 'combination type' POS IDs, where a combination type POS ID is a POS ID specifically preassigned to a combination of cards rather than to a single type of card. According to the invention, the unique combination type POS ID is partitioned across the combination of cards (for example, hardwired into each card). When the cards are combined, the partitioned ID is synthesized and becomes available to the system. The combination type ID may be used by the system to automatically identify and configure the multi-card device combination, perform diagnostics, etc., in the same manner that card type IDs are utilized to identify and configure individual feature cards in conventional systems supporting a POS type feature.