Method and apparatus having a system BIOS write configuration data of a riser card to a controller configuration space when connecting the riser card to a motherboard
AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.
InventorsTimothy C. Maleck, Charles R. Boswell, Brian Barnes
Life of this patent
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Abstract
When a riser card is connected to a computer system motherboard, a storage device on the riser card will contain configuration data permitting the computer system to configure any peripheral device on the riser card. The configuration data will be treated by the BIOS in the computer system as a virtual add-on ROM thereby allowing it to execute and initialize any and all PCI configuration spaces associated with the riser card peripheral devices.
Claims30
In a data processing system, a method for enumerating a device on a riser card plugged into a motherboard containing a processor and a BIOS, comprising the steps of:
- storing configuration data for the device on a storage device on the riser card;
- including a header with the configuration data so that a storage location containing the configuration data is treated by the BIOS as an add-on ROM;
- writing, by the BIOS, the configuration data into a controller configuration space;
- and
- enumerating the device using the configuration data.
A riser card adaptable for connecting to a computer system motherboard, the riser card comprising:
- a peripheral device;
- and
- a computer program product stored on a storage device on the riser card, the computer program product including configuration data operable for use by a system BIOS for writing to a PCI configuration space when the riser card is connected to the computer system.
A data processing system comprising:
- a motherboard including a processor and a BIOS;
- a bus controller coupled to the processor and the BIOS;
- and
- a riser card coupled to the motherboard through the bus controller, wherein the riser card includes a peripheral device and a storage device for storing configuration data associated with the peripheral device;
- circuitry for treating the configuration data by the BIOS as an add-on ROM;
- circuitry for writing, by the BIOS, the configuration data into a controller configuration space;
- and
- circuitry for enumerating the peripheral device using the configuration data.
A method comprising the steps of:
- a BIOS checking for add-on ROMs;
- a virtual ROM controller responding to a memory read from system memory with an appropriate AA55 memory value;
- the BIOS reading a next memory location of the virtual ROM to determine its size;
- shadowing contents of the virtual ROM into main memory;
- the BIOS passing code execution to the virtual ROM;
- the virtual ROM containing executable code that performs a first action that identifies all PCI-based host controllers through a standard PCI enumeration cycle, a second action that accesses and writes to PCI configuration registers, and a third action to write a vendor ID number into the appropriate PCI configuration register of the host controller;
- returning code execution to the BIOS after all configuration is completed;
- and performing a standard BIOS-based PCI enumeration cycle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.