Option ROM / OS Driver Questions

[Mike Doerfler <derf@hpderf.fc.hp.com>]

question 1 :

I have a PCI technical question that is relevant to Expansion ROM
developers and OS PCI card driver writers.  If there is a system that
contains more PCI slots then there is room in memory to execute every
cards initialization option ROM.  Is it OK to bend the Plug and Play
Spec.  and only initialize a set number of cards ?  And if so, would it
be reasonable for OS driver writers to always assume that a card/device
has not been initialized before the driver is called ?  This would put
the responsibility of card/device initialization/testing on the OS driver
itself and not the option ROM.  The driver would contain all code
necessary to bring the card/device up (running).  Is this a reasonable
approach to the too many cards, large ROMs, with limited memory issue ?

question 2 :

Is it possible to execute option ROMs from conventional memory ?
Conventional memory being memory in address range 0-A000:0.

Thanks,
Mike Doerfler 

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