PCI-SIG Test Card FAQ
What is the FoxFire II adapter card?The FoxFire II adapter card is an upgrade to the existing PCI-SIG FoxFire I adapter card. PCI Maximum Completion Time (PCI latency testing) functionality is identical between the first card and the new FoxFire II card. Additional functionality was added to the FoxFire II card to extend key PCI power management functionality tests and BIOS tests. What aspects of PCI power management does the FoxFire II adapter card test?The FoxFire PCI adapter card is used to validate compliance to the following PCI power management functions: PME event generation, 3.3Vaux auxiliary voltage, transition of the system into various sleep states (e.g., S1, S3), and wake up the system via PME# signal assertion. The FoxFire II card is also used to check whether the target system provides 3.3V and 3.3Vaux to all PCI connectors in the system. Do I need driver software for the FoxFire II adapter card?The PCI FoxFire II adapter card requires no driver software. Under the Windows environment, when the operating system recognizes the FoxFire II cards and prompts you to insert the driver software disks, simply cancel the driver installation process. Can you explain the difference between pre-production FoxFire II adapter cards and production FoxFire II cards?You can identify a pre-production FoxFire II adapter card by its EPROM tag, V1.1. FoxFire II cards that you can order now from PCI-SIG have the EPROM tag, V2.1. The production FoxFire II card is capable of measuring the 3.3Vaux voltage to determine whether the 3.3Vaux is within its regulation band while the system is in various system sleep states (e.g., S3). Does it make sense to upgrade the pre-production FoxFire II card EPROM with a production card EPROM V2.1?Pre-production FoxFire II test adapters cannot be upgraded with V2.1 EPROMs found on production cards. Can I mix pre-production and production FoxFire II cards during PCI testing? How will this affect PCI test results?Yes, you can mix pre-production and production FoxFire II adapter cards during PCI testing. However, you need to use a voltmeter to measure the 3.3Vaux voltage while running the pcivaux.exe test. Mixing pre-production and production adapter cards should not affect any other PCI tests. Are there any test stake pins provided for measuring 3.3V on the FoxFire II adapter cards? The pre-production FoxFire II adapter cards had two stake pins for 3.3V (3.3V and GND). However, the production card does not have these stake pins, but it provides probe points (3.3V and GND) for measuring the 3.3V. These probe points are located near the top middle section of the card. Will this adapter card be used to test AGP?This card is not designed to support hardware level testing of AGP. Can you explain the daisy-chain configuration for FoxFire II adapter cards required for the pcipme2.exe test?The pcipme2.exe test verifies that the system hardware sequences between one of the supported system sleep states (e.g., S3 or S1) and the working state (i.e., S0) in response to the PME# signal assertion from multiple FoxFire II test adapters simultaneously. Successfully running this test requires daisy-chaining all installed FoxFire II test adapters in the system. This test will not run with less than two FoxFire II adapter cards. Before you daisy chain all FoxFire II test adapters, you need to identify two stake pins located to the right of PME momentary push button that is located on the top right edge of the card. These two stake pins are clearly marked as "PME PUSH BUTTON" and 'GND". Once you locate these two stake pins for PME on all installed cards, you can daisy chain them by connecting all "PME PUSH BUTTON" pins together and then connecting all "GND" pins together by cables. Where can I get cables to daisy chain FoxFire II adapter cards?The FoxFire II test adapter shipment does not include any cables required for daisy chaining. The number of cables required depends on the total number of FoxFire II cards that you want to daisy chain (e.g., 2 cables for 2 cards and 2 additional cables for for each additional card). You can buy a 1' long cable with easy clips on both ends from many electronic parts retail stores for ~$1. Why do I have to unplug the AC power while installing FoxFire II test cards?You need to shutdown the system and unplug the AC power before setting up FoxFire II test adapters in your system for testing. This procedure is required for target systems that are capable of supporting S3 and provide 3.3Vaux to all PCI connectors. Without unplugging the AC power to the system, if you try to install the FoxFire II test adapters, you may damage the card functionality as 3.3Vaux auxiliary power is still available on the PCI connector pin 14A. Many systems that support 3.3Vaux have an LED on the motherboard to indicate the presence of 3.3Vaux if the system is shutdown but the AC power is still applied. Do I have to become a member to the System Test IF to order a card?The PCI FoxFire II adapter card is available to everyone without membership being required to either System Test IF or PCI-SIG.
How do I purchase the FoxFire II test cards?To order a FoxFire II card, view Ordering information. Where do I report PCI compliance test related FoxFire II card issues?PCI test related issues should be reported to the Microsoft WHQL web site. Issues related to the FoxFire II test card should be reported to PCI-SIG technical support. |
