206 lines
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206 lines
7.7 KiB
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<TITLE>Linux PCI-HOWTO: General tips for PCI-Motherboard + Linux NCR PCI SCSI </TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="PCI-HOWTO-11.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="PCI-HOWTO.html#toc10" REL=contents>
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<A HREF="PCI-HOWTO.html#toc10">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s10">10. General tips for PCI-Motherboard + Linux NCR PCI SCSI </A></H2>
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<P>
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<P>This was compiled by Angelo Haritsis (ah@doc.ic.ac.uk) from various
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people's postings:
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.1">10.1 DON'Ts:</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>Do *NOT* go for combination VLB/PCI motherboards. They usually have
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a lot of problems. Get a plain PCI version (with ISA slots as well
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of course).
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A lot of bad things have been heard about OPTI chipset PCI motherboards.
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Someone hints: "Avoid the OPTi (82C596/82C597/82C822) chipset based
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motherboards like the TMC PCI54PV".
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<P>(I know of at least one person having no problems with his TMC PCI54PV
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motherboard. He just had to put the NCR53c810 addonboard into slot-A
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which is the only slot capable of busmastering as it seems.)
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<P>Rumours say that Intel chipset PCI motherboards will have problems
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with more than one bus-mastering PCI board. I have not tried this one
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yet on mine and have nothing to suggest. I also heard that the
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Saturn II chipset is problematic, but this is the one I use
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and it is perfectly ok! Advice: Try to negotiate a 1-2 week money
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back agreement with your supplier, in case the motherboard
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you get has problems with the use you plan for it.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.2">10.2 SIMM slots</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>Go for 72-pin only SIMMs for speed:
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Some (all?) of the mainboards which take 30 pin SIMMs use a 32 bit
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main memory interface, and will be significantly slower than the
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Intel based boards which all use a 64 bit or permantly interleaved
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memory interface. You might want to keep that in mind.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.3">10.3 Praised PCI Pentium motherboard</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>The P90 Intel motherboard with the Intel
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Premiere II chipset (aka Plato). Get the latest BIOS which has
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concatenated NCR scsi BIOS 3.04.00. Otherwise DOS won't see your
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scsi disk(s) if you use a BIOS-less 53c810 based controller.
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NCR SCSI BIOS exists in the AMI BIOS of the plato after version 1.00.08
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(or maybe verion 1.00.06). This BIOS is FLASH upgradeable so you should be
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able to get the upgrade on a floppy from your supplier. The current
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version is 1.00.10 and has all early problems fixed.
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<P>(Bios files should be available at ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/ibmpc/intel,
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but I did not check that myself. the Autor.)
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.4">10.4 irq-lines </A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>The value in the interrupt line PCI configuration register is usually
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set manually (for compatability with legacy ISA boards) in the
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extended CMOS setup screens on a per-slot or per-device basis.
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Older PCI mainboards also force you to set jumpers for each
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PCI slot/device which select how PCI INTA and perhaps INTB, INTC,
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and INTD are mapped to an 8259 IRQ line, Obviously, if
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these jumpers exist on your board, they must match the
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settings in the extended CMOS setup.
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Also note that some boards (notably Viglens) have silkscreens
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and instruction manuals which disagree with the wiring, and some
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experimentation may be in order.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.5">10.5 Info about the different NCR 8xx family scsi chips:</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>All NCR 8XX Chips are dircet connect PCI bus mastering devices, that
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have no preformance difference wether on motherboard or add in
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option card. All devices comply with PCI 2.0 Specification, and can
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burst 32 bit data at the full 33 MHz (133Mbytes/Sec)
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<P>
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<H3>53C810 </H3>
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<P>53C810 = 8 bit Fast SCSI-2 (10 MB/Sec) Single ended only
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Requires Integrated Mother board BIOS 100 pin Quad Flat Pack (PQFP)
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Worlds first PCI SCSI Chip, Volumes make it the most inexpensive.
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<P>
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<H3>53C815</H3>
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<P>53C815 = 8 bit Fast SCSI-2 (10 MB/Sec) Single Ended only
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Support ROM BIOS interface, which makes it ideal for add-in
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card Designs. 128 Pin QFP
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<P>
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<H3>53C825 </H3>
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<P>53C825 = 8 bit Fast SCSI-2, Single ended or Differential
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16 bit Fast SCSI-2 (20 MB/Sec), Single ended or Differetial
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Also has support for external Rom, making it a good
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candidate for add in cards. 160 pin QFP
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Not supported by linux yet. (See section below on news
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about the 825). Must have devices with wide
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or differential scsi to use these features.
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.6">10.6 future of 53c8xx</A>
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</H2>
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<P>There are 4 new devices planned for announcement late this year and into
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early next year. Footprint compitible with 810 and 825 with some new
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features.
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<P>All the Chips require a BIOS in DOS/Intel applications. The 810 is
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the only chip that needs it resident on the motherboard. Latest NCR
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SCSI BIOS version: 3.04.00
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The bios supports disks >1GB, indeed up to 8G under MS-LOSS.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.7">10.7 Performance of the 53c810</A>
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</H2>
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<P>C't magazine's DOS benchmarks showed that it was significantly
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faster than the Buslogic BT-946, one user noted a 10-15% performance
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increase versus an Adaptec 2940, and with a very fast disk it may be
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2.5X as fast as an Adaptec 1540.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.8">10.8 News about NCR53c825 support</A>
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</H2>
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<P>works. period.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.9">10.9 Frederic POTTER (Frederic.Potter@masi.ibp.fr) about Pentium+NCR+Strap_bug </A>
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</H2>
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<P>On some Intel Plato board, the NCR bios doesn't recognize the board,
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because it needs to see the board as a "secondary SCSI controller",
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and because on most SCSI board the jumper to select between primary/secondary
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has been ironed to primary (to spare 1 cent, presumably).
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<P>Solution:
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<PRE>
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near the NCR chip, they are 3 via ( kind of holes ) with a strap like
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that
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O--O O
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this mean primary is selected as default setting. For the Plato Intel
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Mainboard, it should be like that
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O O--O
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The best solution is to get rid of the strap and to put a 2 position
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jumper instead.
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</PRE>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.10">10.10 PCIprobe in the latest Linux Kernels by Frederic Potter</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>Frederic Potter has added a PCI-Probe into the latest kernels. If you
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do a "cat /proc/pci" it should list all your cards. If you own cards
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which are not properly recogniced, please contact him via mail as
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"Frederic.Potter@masi.ibp.fr".
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<P>See arch/i386/kernel/bios32.c and include/linux/pci.h in the kernel
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source for more information on PCI-Probe-Stuff.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss10.11">10.11 Other PCI Devices</A>
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</H2>
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<P>What other PCI-cards are supported? Apart from various graphicscards, I would
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like to know about other cards like ethernet, framegrabber, or the TSET boards
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Cyclades is about to beta-test at the moment:
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<P>
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<H3>Cyclades: a 16-port PCI RISC-based multiport card.</H3>
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<P>
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<P>The product is called Cyclom-Ye, and has the following characteristics:
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI> PCI host card based on the PLX chip-set. This host card supports 8 to
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32 serial ports, utilizing 8 or 16-port external boxes.</LI>
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<LI> SCSI II cable.</LI>
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<LI> 8 or 16-port external boxes with RJ45 or DB25 connectors (your choice).
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You can start with 8 ports and expand to 32, by just adding more
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boxes. Each external box contains 2 or 4 CD-1400 RISC Serial controllers
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(each CD-1400 controls 4 serial ports).</LI>
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<LI> Up to 4 Host cards can be installed in the PC system, allowing a maximum
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of 128 serial ports per system.</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>The product is being in the beta-test phase at July the 26th, 1995, and should be
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available by Octobre or something. eMail them at sales@cyclades.com.
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<P>
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="PCI-HOWTO-11.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="PCI-HOWTO-9.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="PCI-HOWTO.html#toc10">Contents</A>
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