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Contents
1. IS THE ADAPTER CARD CONFIGURATION OPTIMAL YES CAN THE CONFIGURATION BE IMPROVED OPEN THE MANAGEMENT CONSOLE TO POWER DOWN THE SERVER GIVE DETAILS ON THE OPEN UP THE SERVER mice MOVE ADAPTER CARD TO SUGGESTED ADAPTER CARD 418 SLOT LOCATION US 2002 0099875 Al SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONFIGURING AN I O BUS BACKGROUND 0001 Personal computers and servers are generally designed with multiple input output I O busses with the I O busses accommodating one or more plug in adapter cards An I O bus is the data path on a computer s mother board that interconnects the microprocessor with adapter cards in expansion or adapter card slots and allows the adapter cards to access the microprocessor and memory The plug in adapter cards allow for easy installation of added capabilities such as video audio and communications The I O bus allows for data to be exchanged between the computer processor and the peripheral and regulates the speed at which data is exchanged 0002 As the specifications for I O busses have evolved I o busses support higher date transfer rates In order to take advantage of the higher data transfer rates both the I O busses and the adapter cards must support the higher data transfer rates However to support compatibility with older adapter cards that do not support the higher data transfer rates an architected method exists whereby the I O bus a2. US 20020099875 1 United States a2 Patent Application Publication co Pub No US 2002 0099875 1 Locklear et al 43 Pub Date Jul 25 2002 54 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR 52 US CE serere 710 2 CONFIGURING AN I O BUS 75 Inventors David A Locklear Austin TX US 57 ABSTRACT Michael A Wright Round Rock TX US A system and method are provided for configuring an I O bus The system and method includes a plurality of adapter cards A plurality of adapter card slots associated with the I O busses receive the adapter cards into the computer A user initiates optimization to check for configuration opti 910 Louisiana mization problems and more specifically to check the place Houston TX 77002 4995 US ment of the adapter cards within the adapter card slots of the 7 busses The user initiates optimization and in turn 73 Assignee DELL PRODUCTS L P activates the improvement engine within the computer The improvement engine analyzes the data transfer rates of the 21 Appl No 09 769 799 I O busses and adapter cards and the placement of the adapter cards to determine an improved configuration of the 22 Filed Jan 25 2001 adapter cards within the I O busses Indicators located proximate to the I O busses display visual indication regard Publication Classification ing the adapter card placement within the I O busses allow ing the user to determine if the configuration can be 51y O KEE E
3. 108 In step 406 the user adds a new adapter card 110 The user closes up server 102 in step 408 and powers up server 102 in step 410 0040 In step 412 the user activates optimization switch 114 to request visual indication on the configuration opti mization In step 414 indicators 116 display the visual indication and give an indication to the user regarding the optimal configuration The user reads the indication from indicators 116 in order to determine if the configuration is optimal in step 416 If indicators 116 are a combination of steady green or steady off then the configuration is opti mized and the user needs not act further and the optimization process ends in step 418 0041 If in step 416 indicators 116 are not all of a combination of steady green or steady off but one flashes amber then the configuration is not optimal So in step 420 the user must look at indicators 116 to determine if the configuration can be improved If one of the indicators 116 flashes amber and none of the other indicators flash green then the configuration works as well as possible Therefore in step 422 the user boots the operating system and brings up management console 118 to give the user details on the configuration problem But if in step 420 the configuration can be improved then one of the indicators 116 flashes amber while another of the indicators 116 flashes green Therefore the user will know where to move the identified adapter
4. O busses so that the adapter card has a reduced impact on the I O bus transfer rate The improvement engine also activates the indicator associated with the adapter card slot of the I O bus where the adapter card should be placed so as to improve the I O bus transfer rate Therefore the user can see what adapter card limits the transfer rate and where to move the adapter card to improve the configuration 0012 The present disclosure provides a number of important technical advantages One important technical advantage is that the system and method provides to the user visual indication regarding configuration optimization prob lems The visual indication allows a user to recognize and improve upon the optimization problems Even users who would never think to check their computer s configuration of adapter cards within the adapter card slots or suspect a configuration problem can now get a visual indication of a configuration problem by initiating optimization In addi tion the ability to visually recognize and correct configu ration problems adds value to users computers because users know that their system is running at an optimal level where before they typically did not even know that they had a problem Therefore users get their money s worth from their computers as well as any high dollar adapter cards installed in the computer 0013 Another important technical advantage of the present disclosure is that recognizing and correc
5. configuration can be improved then in step 316 improvement engine 112 suggests an improved adapter card slot 108 location for adapter card 110 limiting the configuration by having indicator 116 flashing green for adapter card slot 108 location where the user should move adapter card 110 limiting the configuration Once the user moves adapter card 110 limiting the configuration to the improved adapter card slot 108 location improvement engine 112 again checks in step 306 to determine if any adapter cards 110 limit the data transfer rate If no adapter cards 110 limit the data transfer rate in step 306 then the configuration is optimized and the process ends in step 308 Jul 25 2002 If the configuration is still not optimized the process repeats until the configuration is optimized or improvement engine 112 determines that moving additional adapter cards 110 will not affect the limited data transfer rate 0038 FIG 4 illustrates a flow diagram for how a user employs the system and method for visually indicating configuration optimization problems and solutions FIG 4 depicts the process for when a user wants to add a new adapter card to a pre existing configuration but the process also applies to configurations where a user is not adding any new adapter cards but only wants to check for optimization 0039 step 402 the user powers down server 102 and in step 404 the user opens up server 102 in order to access adapter card slots
6. configuration problem from what the indicators dis play Therefore users unaware of configuration problems adapter cards and I O busses and having problems associ ated with any of these items can have these problems adequately addressed with servicing over the telephone Jul 25 2002 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0015 more complete understanding of the present embodiments and advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numbers indicate like features and wherein 0016 FIG 1 depicts a block cutaway diagram of the hardware components for the visual indication of I O bus adapter card slot configuration optimization problems and solutions system for a server 0017 FIG 2 depicts a block diagram of the indicators adapter cards adapter card slots and I O busses of the system shown in FIG 1 0018 3 depicts a flow diagram for improving the configuration of adapter cards and 0019 FIG 4 depicts a flow diagram for employing the system and method to visually indicate configuration opti mization problems and solutions DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0020 Preferred embodiments and their advantages are best understood by reference to FIGS 1 through 4 wherein like numbers are used to indicate like and corresponding parts 0021 FIG 1 depicts a block cutaway diagram of the rear view of the hardware c
7. displays this Indicator 116H flashes green indicating that the user should move adapter card 204 to adapter card US 2002 0099875 1 slot 108H in order to no longer limit the data transfer rate of I O bus 106A Adapter card slot 108H is the ideal location for adapter card 204 because adapter card slot 108G already contains adapter card 210 running at 66 MHz Adapter card 210 and adapter card 204 run at the same maximum clock speed 66 MHz and therefore adapter cards 204 and 210 operate at an optimum level and I O bus 106D operates at an optimal data transfer rate Once the user moves adapter card 204 from adapter card slot 108B to adapter card slot 108H and activates optimization switch 114 all indicators associ ated with adapter card slots 108 containing an adapter card are a steady green indicating that the configuration is opti mized 0034 Ifthe configuration cannot be optimized indicators 116 show which adapter cards limit the configuration by flashing amber but not indicating an improved adapter card slot 108 location to switch the adapter card to At this point the user brings up management console 118 for more details on the configuration problem 0035 FIG 3 depicts a flow diagram for improving the configuration of adapter cards 110 In step 302 improve ment engine 112 detects the data transfer rates of adapter cards 110 and also detects the location of adapter cards 110 within adapter card slots 108 In step 304 improv
8. 6 208 and 210 is an optimal configuration Therefore the user depresses optimization switch 114 When the user presses optimization switch 114 improvement engine 112 detects whether or not an adapter card 110 is in an adapter card slot 108 and then determines the data transfer rates of adapter cards 202 through 210 and the I O busses 106 0032 When the user presses optimization switch 114 indicators 116 produce visual indication regarding configu ration optimization Indicators 116D and 116F remain a steady off because adapter card slots 108D and 108F have no adapter cards Indicators 116A 116C 116E and 116G are steady green indicating that adapter cards 202 206 208 and 210 respectively do not limit the data transfer rate Indi cator 116B flashes amber indicating that adapter card 204 limits the data transfer rate of bus 106A Adapter card 204 limits the data transfer rate of I O bus 106A because both adapter card slots 108A and 108B have adapter cards present Since adapter cards 202 and 204 are on the same bus adapter cards 202 and 204 must operate at the same clock speed Adapter card 204 limits adapter card 202 because the maximum speed of 66 MHz of adapter card 204 limits the 100 MHz adapter card 204 to 66 MHz instead of its maximum speed of 100 MHz Adapter card 204 limits adapter card 202 because adapter card 202 cannot operate at its optimal data transfer rate 0033 The configuration can be improved and indicator 116H
9. E E E 06 3 00 improved Correspondence Address Robert W Holland Baker Botts L L P One Shell Plaza 114 IMPROVEMENT 1 12 ENGINE La 102 106B Patent Application Publication Jul 25 2002 Sheet 1 of 4 US 2002 0099875 1 MANAGEMENT 118 114 CONSOLE n 22112 1 IMPROVEMENT t 1 ENGINE LW 102 116A 106A 116B 116C 106B 116D 116E 106C 116F 116G 106D Patent Application Publication Jul 25 2002 Sheet 2 of 4 US 2002 0099875 1 108A 202 106A PCI BUS Patent Application Publication Jul 25 2002 Sheet 3 of 4 US 2002 0099875 A1 DETECT THE DATA TRANSFER RATES OF A PLURALITY OF ADAPTER CARDS AND THE LOCATION OF THE ADAPTER CARDS 302 DETECT THE TRANSFER RATE CAPABILITIES OF A PLURALITY OF 1 0 BUSSES 304 DO ANY ADAPTER CARDS LIMIT THE BUS TRANSFER RATES 307 NO INDICATE THAT NO ADAPTER CARDS LIMIT THE BUS TRANSFER RATE INDICATE THE LOCATION OF THE LIMITING ADAPTER CARD CAN THE CONFIGURATION BE IMPROVED SUGGEST AN IMPROVED ADAPTER CARD SLOT LOCATION FOR THE LIMITING ADAPTER CARD Patent Application Publication Jul 25 2002 Sheet 4 of 4 US 2002 0099875 A1 402 power DOWN A SERVER 404 UP THE SERVER 406 app NEW ADAPTER CARD CLOSE UP THE SERVER POWER UP THE SERVER ACTIVATE THE OPTIMIZATION SWITCH INDICATION GIVEN AS TO OPTIMAL CONFIGURATION FIG 4
10. adapter card slots interfaced with the I O busses of the computer The user presses an optimization switch located on the computer to check the current adapter card configuration Pressing the optimization switch acti vates an improvement engine within the computer to analyze the I O busses and the adapter cards to determine an improved configuration of the adapter cards within the adapter card slots of the I O busses Indicators located on the computer and proximate to the adapter card slots display visual indication on whether or not the adapter card place ment within the I O busses is an optimal configuration 0011 More specifically the improvement engine detects the data transfer rates for the adapter cards and the transfer rate capabilities of the I O busses When the user initiates optimization the improvement engine analyzes and com pares the data transfer rates of the installed adapter cards with the transfer rate capabilities of the I O busses to determine if any of the installed adapter cards limit the I O bus transfer rates If an adapter card limits an I O bus transfer rate the improvement engine activates the indicator US 2002 0099875 Al associated with the adapter card slot of the I O bus receiving the adapter card to visually indicate that this particular adapter card limits the I O bus transfer rate In addition the improvement engine determines where the limiting adapter card should be placed within the plurality of I
11. all other busses are left empty then the data transfer rate of the bus is potentially limited even if the adapter cards operate at the same maximum clock speed The system and method address this limitation and indicate that the two adapter cards be on separate busses so that they no longer share the limited bandwidth of a single I O bus but have their own full amount of bandwidth on their own separate I O bus Therefore there is less unused bandwidth allowing for improved performance In addition the system and method equally apply to all types of computers and not only to servers as described in the disclosed embodiment above 0044 Although the disclosed embodiments have been described in detail it should be understood that various changes substitutions and alterations can be made to the embodiments without departing from their spirit and scope What is claimed is 1 A computer system comprising a plurality of adapter cards operable to interface with the computer system a plurality of adapter card slots interfaced with the adapter cards the plurality of adapter card slots operable to receive the adapter cards a plurality of I O busses associated with the adapter card slots the plurality of I O busses operable to interface with the adapters cards an improvement engine associated with the plurality of I O busses the improvement engine operable to mea sure I O bus performance and improve the placement of the adapte
12. architecture of server 102 including which adapter card slots 108 are associated with I O busses 106 In addition improvement engine 112 also detects the transfer rate capabilities of I O busses 106 Improvement engine 112 also detects the maxi mum transfer capabilities of adapter cards 110 by sampling signals on the interface of adapter cards 110 as defined by the I O bus architecture Improvement engine 112 deter mines when the inclusion of an adapter card 110 on a certain bus 106 brings down the bus transfer rate and conse quently negatively impacts the data transfer rates of the other adapter card 110 on the particular I O bus 106 For example if adapter card 110A operates at 100 MHz and adapter card 110B operates at 66 MHz adapter card 110B limits the operation of adapter card 110A to 66 MHz since adapter cards 110A and 110B are on the same I O bus 106A and must operate at the same speed In addition improve ment engine 112 also determines if another adapter card slot 108 within server 102 is an improved location for adapter card 110 in order to prevent performance and optimization problems 0026 Optimization switch 114 associated with improve ment engine 112 and server 102 allows the user servicing or configuring server 102 to request visual indication on the current adapter card 110 configuration In order to provide visual indication server 102 takes advantage of indicators 116A through 116H associated with adapter card s
13. card 110 so that its limitation is minimal In step 424 the user powers down server 102 and in step 426 opens up server 102 to gain access to adapter card 110 limiting the configuration In step 428 the user moves adapter card 110 that limits the configuration to the suggested improved adapter card slot 108 location to fix the optimization prob lem The user then closes server 102 in step 408 and powers up server 102 in step 410 0042 If optimization requires multiple adapter card 110 moves to obtain optical performance the process is for improvement engine 112 to indicate one adapter card 110 move at a time in order to keep the process simple and intuitive A user employs the process as shown in FIG 4 until the indicators 116 show that an optimal configuration is achieved If it is not possible to configure adapter cards 110 in an optimal way indicators 116 show which adapter card 110 limits the data transfer rate but do not indicate a suggested adapter card slot 108 location in which to move adapter card 110 that limits the configuration At this point the user may access management console 118 to get details on the configuration problem 0043 Although the disclosed embodiments have been described with regard to adapter cards on separate I O US 2002 0099875 Al busses this system and method is applicable to any adapter card configuration problem that limits performance For example if two adapter cards are on the same bus while
14. ddition adapter cards 110 increase the capabilities of server 102 by adding such functions as RAID controllers video adapters graphic accelerators sound cards modems accelerator boards LAN cards such as 10 100 MBs Ethernet network interface cards SCSI cards and WAN cards Each of the adapter card slots 108 receives one of the adapter cards 110 Adapter card slot 108A receives adapter card 110A adapter card slot 108A receives US 2002 0099875 Al adapter card 110B adapter card slot 108C receives adapter card 110C adapter card slot 108D receives adapter card 110D adapter card slot 108E receives adapter card 110E adapter card slot 108F receives adapter card 110F adapter card slot 108G receives adapter card 110G and adapter card slot 108H receives adapter card 110H 0025 Improvement engine 112 associated with I O bus ses 106 and server 102 operates to improve the placement of adapter cards 110 within I O busses 106 Improvement engine 112 is a programmable logic device or ASIC that is designed for the special application of recognizing configu ration optimization problems and providing configuration optimization solutions Alternatively improvement engine 112 may be implemented as software on a microprocessor Improvement engine 112 is built into the system board of server 102 and detects the maximum capable data transfer rates of both adapter cards 110 and I O busses 106 Improve ment engine 112 detects or the specific I O
15. ement engine 112 detects the transfer rate capabilities of I O busses 106 0036 Comparing and analyzing data transfer rates of adapter cards 110 with transfer rate capabilities of I O busses 106 improvement engine 112 determines whether any of adapter cards 110 limit the other adapter cards 110 located on the same I O bus 106 in step 306 If none of the adapter cards 110 limit the bus transfer rates then in step 307 indicators 116 all flash green indicating that no adapter cards 110 limit the bus transfer rate Therefore the configuration cannot be improved upon the user needs not act and the process ends in step 308 But if one or more adapter cards 110 limits the data transfer rates of other adapter cards 100 on I O busses 106 then in step 310 improvement engine 112 determines a single adapter card 110 that limits the configu ration The process indicates one limiting adapter card 110 at a time in order to simplify the process for the user Indicators 116 indicate the adapter card 110 that limits the configuration by flashing amber After determining that the configuration is not optimized in step 312 improvement engine 112 determines whether or not the configuration can be improved If the configuration cannot be improved improvement engine 112 does not suggest an adapter card slot 108 location for the limiting adapter card 110 and the process ends in step 308 0037 But if in step 312 improvement engine 112 deter mines that the
16. ises determining if a different adapter card slot location provides an improved configuration 16 The method of claim 10 wherein detecting the transfer rate capabilities of a plurality of I O busses comprises determining which adapter card slots are on the same I O bus 17 The method of claim 10 wherein indicating the location of the limiting adapter card comprises flashing an LED located proximate to the limiting adapter card 18 The method of claim 11 wherein suggesting a less limiting adapter card configuration comprises flashing an LED located proximate to the improved adapter card slot location 19 The method of claim 10 further comprising repeating the steps of determining when an adapter card limits a bus transfer rate indicating the location of the limiting adapter card and suggesting a less limiting adapter card configura tion until either an improved configuration is achieved or an improved configuration is not possible 20 A method for improving an adapter card configuration within a plurality of I O busses the method comprising adding an adapter card to the I O busses initiating a performance check and reading indicators to ascertain if the adapter card con figuration is limiting the data transfer rate 21 The method of claim 20 wherein initiating a perfor mance check comprises activating an optimization switch US 2002 0099875 Al 22 method of claim 20 further comprising moving adapter card f
17. lots 108 and I O busses 106 Indicators 116 are bicolor light emitting diodes LED Server 102 typically uses indicators 116 for PCI hot plug identification so that when not testing for optimization indicators 116 provide an indication to the user of server 102 on whether an adapter card 110 within adapter card slot 108 is powered failed or ready for a hot plug operation When the user depresses optimization switch 114 indicators 116 convert from their PCI hot plug system identification function and instead are used to indicate the optimization of the placement of adapter cards 110 within the adapter card slots 108 and I O busses 106 Each indicator 116 is associated with a single adapter card slot 108 and returns visual indication only for the adapter card 110 in that adapter card slot 108 For example indicator 116A returns optimization information regarding adapter card 110A indi cator 116B returns information regarding adapter card 110B and so forth 0027 Indicators 116 denote four different states in rela tion to adapter card slots 108 Indicator 116 unlit indicates Jul 25 2002 that no adapter card is present within adapter card slot 108 Indicator 116 that is a steady green indicates that adapter card 110 located in adapter card slot 108 does not limit the data transfer rate Indicator 116 flashing amber indicates that adapter card 110 located in that adapter card slot 108 limits the bus transfer rate causing the configurati
18. nd the adapter card negotiate for the highest supported data transfer rate Therefore to accommodate slower adapter cards an I O bus with multiple adapter card slots transfers data at a data transfer rate equal to the slowest adapter card on the I O bus If a user adds an adapter card to a bus already containing an adapter card and the adapter cards are of varying data transfer rates then performance of the com puter system suffers because the two adapter cards will not operate at each card s maximum data transfer rate but instead at the slower of the two maximum data transfer rates of the adapter cards 0003 similar problem also occurs when multiple adapter cards of the same data transfer rate are located on one I O bus when there are unoccupied I O busses available in the computer system Because the adapter cards operate at the same data transfer rate the adapter cards will operate at their maximum data transfer rate But the adapter cards have to share the total available bandwidth of the single I O bus while the other I O busses go unused or underused Thereby the computer system does not operate as efficiently as it could if the adapter cards were located on separate I O busses 0004 Because adapter cards and I O busses auto nego tiate the data transfer rate to accommodate slower adapter cards on the same I O bus many users are not operating their computer systems at optimal or efficient levels But config uring computer s
19. nt console operable to give details on a configu ration problem when the adapter card configuration cannot be improved 10 A method for improving the data transfer rate of adapter cards the method comprising detecting the data transfer rates of a plurality of adapter cards detecting the transfer rate capabilities of a plurality of I O busses determining when an adapter card limits a bus transfer rate indicating the location of a limiting adapter card and suggesting a less limiting adapter card configuration 11 The method of claim 10 wherein suggesting a less limiting adapter card configuration comprises suggesting an improved adapter card slot location for the limiting adapter card 12 The method of claim 10 wherein suggesting a less limiting adapter card configuration comprises recognizing that there is not an improved adapter card configuration and not suggesting an improved adapter card slot location for the limiting adapter card 13 The method of claim 12 further comprising opening a management console having configuration details when an improved adapter card configuration cannot be achieved 14 The method of claim 10 wherein determining when an adapter card limits the bus transfer rate comprises analyzing and comparing the adapter card data transfer rates the adapter card slots and the bus transfer rate capabilities 15 The method of claim 10 wherein suggesting a less limiting adapter card configuration compr
20. omponents for the visual indication of I O bus adapter card slot configuration optimization prob lems and solutions system for server 102 0022 Server 102 has four input output I O busses I O bus 106A I O bus 106B I O bus 106C and I O bus 106D In alternative embodiments server 102 may contain more than four or less than four I O busses I O busses 106 contain two adapter card slots 108 per I O busses 106 I O bus 106A contains adapter card slots 108A and 108B I O bus 106B has adapter card slots 108C and 108D I O bus 106C contains adapter card slots 108E and 108F and I O bus 106D has adapter card slots 108G and 108H In alternative embodiments I O busses 106 may contain less than two or more than two adapter card slots per bus 0023 I O busses 106 comprise peripheral component interconnect PCI bus type peripheral component intercon nect extended PCI X bus type or any other appropriate bus type The PCI X bus type allows server 102 to support new PCI X cards as well as PCI adapter cards PCI X is a newer bus technology that increases the data transfer rate from 66 MHz the maximum for PCI busses to 133 MHz In addi tion PCI X is also backwards compatible and therefore allows server 102 to run PCI adapter cards in a PCI X bus 0024 Adapter card slots 108 associated with I O busses 106 accept adapter cards 110 The type of adapter cards 110 that server 102 accepts include adapter card types such as PCI and PCI X In a
21. on to not be optimized Indicator 116 flashing green gives the indication of where the adapter card 110 limiting the configuration should be moved in order to improve the data transfer rate 0028 If the configuration cannot be improved there will be no indicators 116 flashing green and the user can access and bring up management console 118 associated with improvement engine 112 to view details regarding the status of the configuration of adapter cards 110 within adapter card slots 108 0029 FIG 2 depicts a block diagram of indicators 116 adapter card slots 108 and I O busses 106 of server 102 shown in FIG 1 Server 102 contains four independent I O busses 106 with two adapter card slots 108 per I O bus 106 For exemplary purposes all four I O busses 106 are shown in FIG 2 as PCI X busses with two adapter card slots 108 per bus and support adapter cards running at 100 MHz 66 MHz and 33 MHz 0030 FIG 2 shows a 100 MHz adapter card 202 plugged into adapter card slot 108A a 66 MHz adapter card 204 plugged into adapter slot 108B a 100 MHz adapter card 206 plugged into adapter card slot 108C a 100 MHz adapter card 208 plugged into adapter card slot 108E and a 66 MHz adapter card 210 plugged into adapter card slot 108G Adapter card slots 108D 108F and 108H do not contain any adapter cards and are therefore left empty 0031 The user of server 102 desires to check to see if the configuration of the adapter cards 202 204 20
22. r cards within the plurality of adapter card slots and a plurality of indicators associated with the plurality of adapter card slots the indicators operable to display visual indication on the adapter card configuration 2 The computer system of claim 1 further comprising an optimization switch associated with the plurality of I O busses and the improvement engine the optimization switch operable to activate the improvement engine and the indi cators 3 The computer system of claim 1 wherein the indicators comprise bi color LED s 4 The computer system of claim 1 wherein the indicators comprise PCI hot plug indication LED s 5 The computer system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of I O busses auto negotiate the data transfer rates of the adapter cards 6 The computer system of claim 1 wherein the improve ment engine comprises a programmable logic device 7 computer system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of I O busses comprises I O busses having more than one adapter card slot 8 The computer system of claim 1 wherein the improve ment engine comprises a programmable logic device that detects the specific I O architecture of the computer system including which adapter card slots are on the same I O bus and the data transfer rate capabilities of the I O busses and the adapter cards 9 The method of claim 1 further comprising a manage ment console associated with the improvement engine the Jul 25 2002 manageme
23. rmine over the telephone the prob lem with a computer system is a difficult task even when the user has an idea of the problem And without being able to physically see the computer system the technical support staff has a hard time fixing a configuration optimization problem without the user having at least some knowledge of I O busses and adapter cards SUMMARY 0006 Therefore a need has arisen for a system and method that visually indicates configuration problems and solutions for I O busses 0007 A further need has arisen for a system and method that allows a user to achieve an optimal or improved configuration without specialized knowledge 0008 further need has arisen for a system and method that allows for the servicing of configuration problems over the telephone 0009 In accordance with teachings of the present disclo sure a system and method are described for configuring an I O bus which substantially eliminates or reduces disadvan tages and problems associated with previous systems and methods The system and method allows for an intuitive and uncomplicated way for a user to recognize and resolve I O bus or adapter card configuration optimization problems 0010 In accordance with one aspect of the present dis closure a system and method provides visual indication of I O bus configuration optimization problems and solutions A computer has a plurality of adapter cards A user inserts the adapter cards into
24. rom a non optimal adapter card slot location to a suggested improved adapter card slot location to improve the adapter card configuration 23 The method of claim 22 further comprising repeating the steps of initiating a performance check reading indica tors and moving the adapter cards until an improved adapter Jul 25 2002 card configuration is achieved or the indicators show that an improved adapter card configuration is not possible 24 The method of claim 20 further comprising iteratively determining adapter card configuration improvement by checking one adapter card at a time
25. ting I O bus adapter card slot configuration optimization problems is an intuitive and user friendly task A user with little computer knowledge can quickly test for a configuration optimization problem by activating optimization and if a non optimal I O bus adapter card slot configuration problem exists quickly correct it by making any recommended changes The user can check the configuration immediately after power up and prior to booting the operating system and running any management software Therefore any configuration prob lems are discovered and resolved quickly Users no longer have to consult user s manuals or search for the specifica tions for third party components in order to be able to recognize and correct configuration optimization problems In addition users can upgrade their systems without wor rying about changing an otherwise optimized configuration because activating optimization tells the users if they have optimally installed a new adapter card 0014 Another important technical advantage of the present disclosure is that it simplifies servicing by telephone If a technical support staff suspects that an I O bus adapter card slot configuration problem causes a user s overall problem the technical support staff can tell the user to activate optimization and the user can quickly report back to the technical support staff what the indicators display The technical support staff can determine if there is an optimi zation
26. ystem to operate at an optimal or even improved level is a difficult task for a majority of users Improving the configuration of computer systems typically involves running a diagnostic on the system by someone having some degree of knowledge with computers Indeed even recognition that a configuration needs improving gen erally involves a degree of expertise Moreover improving configuration requires the user to consult the user s manual on how best to configure adapter cards to achieve optimum or improved performance If user upgrades or has third party components within the computer system then the user must also obtain the performance specifications for those third party components in order to improve the configura Jul 25 2002 tion Therefore improving a configuration is neither an intuitive task nor a user friendly task Also consumers who spend extra money to purchase advanced computer systems often do not know if the configuration is operating sub optimally and therefore may not get as good a return as they should on their investment in the computer system 0005 Another difficulty in improving a configuration is that telephone servicing and technical support of computer systems for configuration problems is difficult Non opti mized configurations cause problems in a computer system but most users are unaware that the placement of adapter cards can cause configuration problems as well as other problems Trying to dete
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