an odd thing....

[Donald Becker]

On 19 Jul 2002, Dean Johnson wrote:

> I just went to install an Intel e1000 card in a Samsung/API UP1100 Alpha
> machine. Lo and behold, it wouldn't fit, as the back lip of the PCI slot
> was too thick for the 64bit card to fit over. Does this mean that the
> motherboard only handles 32bit cards? or does it mean the mboard builder
> used a PCI slot that is physically out of spec?

There are PCI sockets specifically designed to prevent insertion of 64
bit boards.  I've usually seen them on AMD K6 motherboards where the
system (BIOS?) didn't know how to deal with them.  If it's just the
BIOS, you can fix up the configuration settings and address assignment
in software.

I'm surprised that an Alpha motherboard would have these sockets, unless
there is an issue with system assuming that all slots are 64 bits, and
setting a 64 bit card to use a 64 bit data path.

> I have resisted the
> temptation to get in there with a nail file. ;-)

I've used a Dremel, because I really wanted to test out 64 bit support
that I was adding *right then*.

-- 
Donald Becker				becker at scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Second Generation Beowulf Clusters
Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993