Press Release

PCI Hot-Plug Specification Draft Released for Industry Review

PCI-SIG Continues Work on Enhancements to the PCI Local Bus

Portland, OREGON - March 25, 1997 - The PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) announced today that the PCI Hot-Plug specification has been made available for industry review on the PCI-SIG Web site at http://www.pcisig.com. The PCI Hot-Plug specification, along with the PCI Power Management specification and Vital Products Data (VPD) enhancements, represent the continued innovation of the PCI-SIG in its work to proactively address industry requirements for the PCI local bus standard.

"Industry input is an important part of the standards setting process," said Warren Questo, PCI-SIG chair. "By making the PCI Hot-Plug specification draft available on our Web site, we will receive feedback and comments that will be utilized to create a final, robust specification in a timely manner."

The objective of the PCI Hot-Plug specification is to enable the insertion and removal of PCI adapter cards without having to shut the system down. This capability allows for several implementations, including Hot Replace, replacing adapter cards in "hot systems;" Hot Upgrade, upgrading existing adapter cards with new versions of cards and drivers; and Hot Expansion, adding previously uninstalled cards and associated driver software into the system. The adoption of the specification is important for businesses that operate mission critical server environments, for which downtime can represent a significant cost.

The PCI Hot-Plug specification is open for review by anyone in the industry. Comments on the specification will be considered by the PCI-SIG as it refines the specification, which is expected to be completed in June.

In conjunction with the PCI Hot-Plug work, the PCI-SIG has developed the PCI Power Management specification to address the issues of power management and energy conservation on the PCI bus. Working in concert with the operating system, it allows expansion cards to be powered down when not in use, and powered up when in demand. The PCI Power Management specification is currently being reviewed by the PCI-SIG, and is expected to be ratified and released to the industry early this summer.

The PCI-SIG continues to address new requirements to the PCI local bus standard with enhancements that expand its capability, and is currently working on Vital Products Data (VPD). VPD is a way to describe information about the PCI device such as manufacturer, serial number, and warranty information. This information can be used by systems administrators for asset management and help desk support, and will help reduce the total cost of ownership of PCI systems. Both the PCI Power Management specification and the VPD enhancement will be in the formal, member final review cycle by mid-April.

Formed in June 1992, PCI-SIG is the industry organization that owns and manages the PCI Local Bus specification. More than 500 industry-leading companies are active PCI-SIG members. The organization is chartered to support new requirements, while maintaining backwards compatibility for all PCI revisions, maintain the specification as an easy-to-implement, stable technology; and contribute to the technical longevity of PCI and its establishment as an industry-wide standard. For more information, contact PCI-SIG via phone at 800-433-5177 (within the U.S.) or fax at 503-693-8344, or visit the PCI-SIG Web site at http://www.pcisig.com.