Autoconfigurable device that provisionally configures itself as the primary or secondary peripheral device depending on if another peripheral device is present

Abstract

A method of automatically configuring an autoconfigurable computer peripheral device as a primary device or as a secondary device. There are four possible cases: (1) no other device present, (2) legacy primary device present, (3) legacy secondary device present and (4) second autoconfigurable device present. Host computer device configuration application software provides a signal or numerical data indicating a bit position within an identification number within each autoconfigurable device. If a device identification has a particular logical value at the bit position, the device responds to the signal from the computer. If the device identification has a different particular logical value at the bit position, the device determines whether another device is responding to the signal from the computer. If a first device determines that it should not respond, and a second device responds, the first device provisionally configures itself as a secondary device. If all bit positions are exhausted, and a device has not provisionally configured itself as a secondary device, then the device provisionally configures itself as a primary device. The host computer then sends a particular numerical value to the devices. Depending on the particular numerical value, each device configures itself to its provisional configuration, or to the opposite configuration from its provisional configuration, or unconfigures itself.