Hi-
We are having an interesting problem when using an extender card with a PCI-PCI expansion chassis. The expansion product has Intel 21150 PCI-PCI bridges on the host card and embedded into the chassis' 8 slot (4-11) backplane. The operating system appears to see two cards in the backplane when only the extender card and the PCI card in the extender's top connector are actually installed. For instance if the extender card and the PCI card under test are installed in slot 4, then the operating system sees that card in slot 4 with the configuration registers as normal. It also shows a card in slot 5 with the same vendor and device ID's but all other configuration registers are 0xFFFF??? We are using Intel's PVIEW program to verify this problem. We believe it is a loading/timing problem due to the fact that the extender card (and the PCI card on top) present more than a normal PCI load on bussed signals?? The PCI card can still be accessed but another "ghost" card should not be showing up when the PCI bussed is scanned. This problem is repeatable in the sense when another extender card with another PCI card is installed in slot 8, 4 PCI cards show up. The two that are actually installed on the extender cards and two "ghost" cards at slots 5 and 9??
If anyone has experienced a problem similar to this and has some insight I am sure it would be helpful!!!
W. J. Gomes III
Hardware Engineer
ComputerBoards, Inc.
16 Commerce Blvd.
Middleboro, MA 02346
Voice: (508) 946-5100 x279
Fax: (508) 946-9500
email:walter.gomes@computerboards.com