Method and apparatus for isolating circuit boards in a computer system

In a general purpose computer system characterized by resources including a central processing unit, a memory, expansion slots for receiving circuit boards, input and output ports and a computer system bus including an address bus, a data bus and a control bus connected to said resources, a computer-implemented method of preventing memory conflicts within said computer system when a certain one of said circuit boards is added to an expansion slot of said computer system, comprising the steps of:

• beginning start-up procedures for said computer system;
• determining whether a memory conflict exists within said computer system when said certain circuit board is added to said expansion slot;
• in response to determining said memory conflict, activating an address enable (AEN) control line operative to control input and output operations of said certain circuit board with said computer system, thereby preventing said certain circuit board from communicating via said input and output ports of said computer system;
• in response to determining a memory conflict, providing a control signal from said central processing unit to a latch, said latch being connected to said central processing unit and to an address line A19 of the expansion slot containing said certain circuit board, said address line A19 operative for addressing the portion of said memory corresponding to default memory assignments for said certain circuit board;
• and
• in response to said control signal, said latch disabling said address line A19 while said certain circuit board remains in said expansion slot.

A computer-readable medium on which is stored a program module for preventing conflicts within memory of a computer system when a certain circuit board is added to an expansion slot of said computer system, comprising instructions which, when executed by said computer system, perform the steps of:

• determining whether a memory conflict exists within said computer system when said certain circuit board is added to said expansion slot;
• in response to determining said memory conflict, activating an address enable (AEN) control line operative to control input and output operations of said certain circuit board with said computer system, thereby preventing said certain circuit board from communicating via said input and output ports of said computer system;
• in response to determining a memory conflict, providing a control signal to a latch, said latch being connected to a central processing unit (CPU) and to an address line A19 of the expansion slot containing said certain circuit board, said address line A19 operative for addressing the portion of said memory corresponding to default memory assignments for said circuit board;
• and
• in response to said control signal, said latch operative to disable said address line A19 while said certain circuit board remains in said expansion slot.