Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Input/output data processing – Peripheral configuration
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-08
2001-05-22
Lee, Thomas (Department: 2182)
Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/
Input/output data processing
Peripheral configuration
C710S008000, C710S062000, C710S072000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237048
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of adapter cards, and in particular, to use of vendor unique connections in a standard adapter card bus specification.
2. Background Information
In many computer systems, input/output (I/O) interfacing and other special purpose circuitry is often provided using add-on adapter cards which conveniently and simply plug-in to standard bus connectors on a processor mother-board or backplane. A variety of adapter/connector/bus types and standards are known, and one of these is the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) standard.
Standardization provides inherent advantages both for consumers and manufacturers, but also has inherent limitations. A clear advantage of PCI standardization is predictable interchangeability, which gives consumers a wide selection of adapter cards and manufacturers to choose from, and gives manufacturers a large pool of consumers to target. However, as can be readily appreciated, PCI standardization may have the effect of limiting PCI adapter card functionality because of the constraints imposed on the type and number of signals available through the PCI connector. Vendors/manufacturers of PCI adapter cards, motherboards/backplanes and systems (boxes), have an inherent need to differentiate their PCI platforms from the crowd of competitors to gain a marketing advantage over their competitors by providing enhanced functionality. Therefore, a clear disadvantage of PCI standardization is the constraint it places on the ability to customize circuitry to provide enhanced functionality.
In particular, since the current PCI standard does not allow for “vendor unique” connections from PCI adapter cards to PCI motherboards/backplanes through the PCI standard edge connector, customization is limited to what can be accommodated by the standard edge connector. However, the PCI bus standard currently has a number of reserved (RSVD) pins on the edge connector, reserved for future definition and standardization. Presently, there are nine PCI RSVD pins: A09, A11, B10, B14, B63, B92, B93, A92 and A94. There are also some pins which may be infrequently used, such as A14 and A19, for example.
A number of PCI card and backplane vendors, including International Business Machines Corporation, have already made use of some of the reserved pins on the PCI bus connector for proprietary purposes to overcome the customization limitation.
However, as the PCI community continues to define standard uses of these RSVD pins, these legacy cards and backplanes, that is, cards and backplanes on which some RSVD pins are used for proprietary purposes, may experience compatibility problems with systems designed according to a redefined PCI standard. Such problems, of course, negate any marketing advantages that these legacy devices had when they were compatible with the PCI standard.
Currently, the problem of a lack of vendor unique connections in the PCI standard is being addressed by a PCI industrial standards group called PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) which is advancing a new standard called CompactPCI. This new standard is an adaptation of the desktop PCI specification. Among other things, CompactPCI allows a large number of vendor unique connections to a backplane.
However, the CompactPCI solution to the problem of providing vendor unique connections has some drawbacks and limitations. In particular, because CompactPCI is not an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) approved PCI standard, and mainly targets a particular segment of the total PCI market, the advantage of volume acceptance of this solution is currently limited. Further, CompactPCI uses a completely different connector configuration from the current PCI standard connector which raises forward and backward compatibility issues (for the CompactPCI specification, see the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group website at www.picmg.orglacompactpci.htm).
Therefore, a need exists for a way to accommodate vendor unique differentiation/customization while maintaining the required degree of compatibility and standardization.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for vendor unique differentiation.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus that solves the above mentioned problems so that standardization and customization can co-exist.
These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by the method and apparatus disclosed herein.
According to an aspect of the invention, vendor unique differentiation is accomplished using PCI sideband signals, that is, reserved pins and/or other non-critical PCI signal pins, or ground pins, for example.
According to an aspect of the invention, programmable switches, so-called “intelligent switches,” also referred to herein as “SmartSwitches,” are disposed on either a card or a backplane.
According to another aspect of the invention, a SmartSwitch has an input controlled by the Operating System (OS). The path of control for the OS can be through the PCI bus to a PCI Bridge chip, or directly from a system service processor or an Operator Panel (OpPanel) using a serial bus, for instance. Redundant paths may be provided and used selectively. After initialization, the SmartSwitch is directed to throw-the-switch to connect to one of a plurality of board functions.
According to another aspect of the invention, one or more jumpers on the card allow particular functions to be disconnected and/or select which of the pins have a non-standard function.
According to another embodiment of the invention, instead of placing the SmartSwitch on a backplane, the SmartSwitch is placed on the adapter card itself.
According to another aspect of the invention, in the case where the SmartSwitch is provided on the adapter card, the card includes circuitry for driving the SmartSwitch function through the PCI bus.
According to another aspect of the invention, driving the SmartSwitch through the PCI bus can be accomplished by putting a PCI Bridge chip on the card, or by adding other card logic to respond to a specific PCI configuration cycle or Write command.
According an aspect of the invention, the standard PCI PRSNT (present detect) pin can be wired as an input to either SmartSwitch embodiment mentioned above, for the case where the state of the switch should change based on whether the PCI card is plugged-in.
The solution according to the present invention would be advantageous for any computer manufacturer because of the ability to differentiate their products from each other, while at the same time not sacrificing their “sweet-spot” volume base using standard PCI cards. Adopting an architecture according to the present invention provides an alternative to current and proposed PCI platforms, such as COMPACT PCI.
The solution according to the present invention can be implemented using SmartSwitches on backplanes connected to PCI Bridge chips or serial bus interfaces, and the like. Jumpers for enabling/disabling/selecting the signal lines used for special functions can be provided on the PCI card itself.
Alternatively, the solution according to the invention can be implemented by placing the SmartSwitches on the PCI cards themselves. Further, SmartSwitches could be provided both on the backplane and the PCI card, the SmartSwitch on the card serving the function of the jumpers for enabling/disabling/selecting the signal lines used for special functions.
These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description set forth below.
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Compact PCI Short From Specification, Revision 2.1. PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group (PCIMG) 2.0 R2.1 Sep. 2
Allen Jonathan Michael
Moertl Daniel Frank
Neal Danny Marvin
Nordstrom Gregory Michael
Osten Thomas James
Cao Chun
International Business Machines - Corporation
Lee Thomas
Lynt Christopher H.
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