Appeal No. 1998-0613
Application 08/554,998
claims remaining in this application.
Appellants’ invention relates to automatic initialization
and configuration of input/output (I/O) boards for a computer.
In accordance with the invention, each individual I/O board is
adapted to recognize a unique sequence of commands, and then
to activate some aspects of the board in response. Each I/O
command has an associated address, but before a particular
board is activated, there is no address associated with the
particular board. Board addresses are assigned after
activation. An inactive I/O board is commanded to become
active, even though the I/O board address in not known by the
processor or not yet assigned by the processor.
Representative independent claim 76 is reproduced as
follows:
76. An apparatus in a computer, for activating an
input/output (I/O) board in the computer, the apparatus
comprising:
a processor;
an I/O bus electrically coupled to the processor and the
I/O board;
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