Frequently Asked Questions about the PCI Quartet This document is designed to answer common questions about Quartet adapters, or get you up and running with your own Quartet as quickly as possible. You may also wish to read "Frequently Asked Questions about eMASTER+ PCI Adapters." Q: What is a Quartet adapter? A: EM964 PCI Quartet, Quartet/400 TX PCI Fast Ethernet, Quartet/440 TX PCI Fast Ethernet, and Quartet/440 T4 PCI Fast Ethernet are highly innovative Ethernet adapters which take advantage of the flexible PCI Local Bus architecture to provide four network channels on a single board. Quartet adapters can support up to four separate network segments, all at full cable bandwidth. Each channel on a Quartet adapter has its own Ethernet address and is capable of throughput rates of 10 Mbps for half-duplex Ethernet or 20 Mbps for Full Duplex Ethernet (FDE). For the 100 Mbps Quartet/400 TX and Quartet/440 TX, the throughput rates are 100 Mbps for half-duplex Ethernet or 200 Mbps for Full Duplex Ethernet (FDE)! These adapters are ideal for heavily loaded servers which must service large networks but have limited numbers of PCI slots. Like most PC bus architectures, PCI is electronically limited in the number of slots it can support. This restricts the number of network segments a PCI server can handle. The Quartet's four- channel design solves this problem and gives PCI servers the power of four Ethernet adapters in a single board-using only one PCI slot. The EM964 PCI Quartet adapter is currently available with four twisted pair connectors for 10BASE-T cabling. A BNC version is also available for thin coax cabling. The Quartet/400 is available with four twisted pair connectors for 100BASE-TX cabling. The Quartet/440 TX is available with four twisted pair connectors for 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX cabling. The Quartet/440 T4 is available with four twisted pair connectors supporting both 10BASE-T and 100BASE-T4 cabling. Q: What is the PCI-PCI Bridge chip? A: The PCI Local Bus architecture is designed to accommodate many devices through a cascadable bus structure. Multiple logical peripheral bus layers may be presented through one PCI expansion slot on your server's motherboard with this architecture. Each Quartet adapter in the system is a logical peripheral bus providing up to four network devices. The secret to this technology is the PCI-PCI Bridge chip on the Quartet adapter. The PCI-PCI Bridge chip "bridges" separate logical devices on an adapter card to the host PCI bus located on the motherboard. In the PCI architecture, the system BIOS has the job of allocating interrupts to each of the PCI devices on the PCI bus, including those which incorporate the PCI-PCI Bridge chip, such as Quartet adapters. Q: Do I need BIOS support for the PCI-PCI Bridge chip? A: Even though PCI-PCI Bridge technology is outlined in the PCI specification, not all current PCI BIOSs fully implement the capabilities of this technology. Of course, this isn't going to stop your server from benefiting from the Quartet adapter today. Cogent has implemented the PCI-PCI Bridge chip BIOS support in the DOS and OS/2 NDIS 2.0 and NetWare server drivers. These drivers are compatible with all industry-standard PCI BIOSs, including next- generation BIOSs that support PCI-PCI Bridge chips. Q: What operating systems require BIOS support for the PCI-PCI bridge chip? A: The Windows NT and Windows 95 Operating Systems require PCI systems with BIOSs that do support the PCI-PCI Bridge chip. To run Windows NT or Windows 95 with a Quartet adapter, you must first make sure that your system BIOS supports the PCI-PCI Bridge chip. Q: How do I know if my BIOS supports the PCI-PCI Bridge chip? A: To determine the PCI Bridge chip functionality of your current BIOS, use the EMDIAG utility located on your eMASTER+ diskette. Simply run EMDIAG from the DOS prompt by inserting your eMASTER+ diskette into a diskette drive, changing to the appropriate drive, and typing "EMDIAG." At the main menu of EMDIAG, choose "PCI Device Information." At this time, if your BIOS does NOT support the PCI- PCI Bridge chip, the following message will appear: Your system's BIOS does not directly support PCI bridges. EMDIAG has configured the system for you. Please note the resources it has assigned. You may need these values when configuring the network driver. If no message appears, then very good! Your current system BIOS supports the PCI-PCI Bridge chip, and you can proceed with driver installation. Otherwise, contact your vendor to make sure you are using the latest BIOS for your system, and then try again. If you still receive this message with your new BIOS, see the next question. Q: How do I configure my Quartet adapter? A: Your BIOS normally configures the Quartet adapter. If your computer's BIOS does not support PCI-PCI Bridge chip devices, and you wish to run NetWare or use the DOS or OS/2 NDIS 2.0 driver, follow the instructions below to determine available resources and configure your driver. 1. Boot your system under MS-DOS version 3.3 or later. 2. Insert your eMASTER+ setup diskette in drive A: 3. At the DOS prompt, type A:\EMDIAG. 4. From the list of options in the main menu, choose "Configuration Status." 5. A window reports the resources the PCI Quartet adapter is using. 6. Make a note of the IRQ in use by your Quartet adapter. You will use this information during the driver installation. 7. Exit the eMASTER+ Setup Program. 8. Now, depending on which driver you wish to install, go to the appropriate section below. For NetWare: Start the NetWare server, and load the eMASTER+ driver for your Quartet adapter with using the "INT" parameter, as follows: LOAD EMPCI.LAN INT=A where "A" represents the interrupt (in hex) you recorded under "Configuration Status" in EMDIAG in Step 6. The INT parameter tells the driver which interrupt to use. For DOS or OS/2 NDIS: Edit the PROTOCOL.INI section for your Quartet adapter , adding the "IRQ" parameter as follows: [EMPCI_NIF] Drivername=EMPCI$ IRQ=3 where the "3" is replaced by the interrupt (in decimal) you recorded under "Configuration Status" in EMDIAG in the preceding steps. The IRQ parameter tells the driver which interrupt to use. Q: Does my Quartet adapter support Load Balancing? A: Load Balancing between network segments attached to a server is an operating system function (not a network adapter function) designed to increase total throughput. Load Balancing allows network adapters (or ports, in the case of Quartets) to balance traffic between server adapters or ports equally. Load Balancing techniques prevent one adapter from remaining idle while others become overloaded. The NetWare operating system supports Load Balancing between segments, if the following conditions are met: 1. You have two or more network adapters installed in your server. -or- You have one or more Quartet adapters installed in your server. 2. Your server segments are attached to the same Ethernet switch. 3. You have installed on your server a load balancing NLM support module. Currently, there are three Load Balancing NLMs available: SWITCH.NLM from Kalpana, now part of Cisco Systems(call 408-749-1600) BALANCE.NLM from NSI (call 800-775-4674) IPXRTR.NLM from Novell (download IPXRT3.EXE from the NWOSFILES CompuServe forum, or from Novell's FTP site at: ftp://ftp.novell.com/pub/updates/nwos/nw311/ipxrt3.exe) As of the time of this writing, Load Balancing software is not available for Windows NT. Q: Does my Quartet adapter support routing? A: Routing functionality is provided by network operating systems, and not by network adapters themselves. The Quartet adapter acts just like four separate network adapters installed in a server. And, just like other network adapters, the Quartet can be used with server operating systems (like Novell NetWare and Windows NT) that support routing. Q: Does my Quartet adapter provide four unique Ethernet Node IDs? A: Yes. Each port on a Quartet adapter uses its own unique Ethernet address, or Node ID. Q: Am I required to use all four ports on my Quartet adapter? A: No. One of the benefits of the Quartet adapter is that it scales to meet your needs. Use two or three ports now, and know that you have the extra ports available when your network grows. Q: Does the Quartet adapter support Full Duplex Ethernet (FDE)? A: Yes. All Quartet models support FDE on all four ports. The EM964 (TP version) supports 10 Mbps FDE, for 20 Mbps of bandwidth on each port. The EM400 TX supports 100 Mbps FDE, for 200 Mbps on each port. The EM440 TX supports both 10 Mbps FDE and 100 Mbps FDE on each port. The EM440 T4 supports 10 Mbps FDE on each port. Q: Can I install more than one Quartet in my server? A: Yes. You can install multiple Quartet adapters in a single server. Q: What operating systems do Quartet adapters support? A: Quartet adapters currently support a number of operating systems, including: NetWare 3.x and 4.x, NetWare SFT III (for both 3.x and 4.x), Windows NT, Windows 95, IBM LAN server, MS LAN Manager, and DEC PathWorks. Q: Where can I get the latest drivers for my Quartet adapter? A: Download the file EMPCI.EXE (a self-extracting archive) from any of Cogent's public forums, including CompuServe (!GO Cogent), the Cogent BBS (360) 378-5405, the Cogent FTP site (ftp.pacificrim.net/Pub/Cogentdata), or the Cogent World Wide Web (http://www.cogentdata.com). copyright 1996 Cogent Data Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Current as of April 11, 1996