Abstract: A method for communicating data includes receiving at a main card a first media access control (MAC) address of a first peripheral component interconnect (PCI) card coupled to the main card and determining whether the first peripheral card has been previously used with the main card based on the received first MAC address. The method includes assigning a first previous ID value to the first peripheral card if the first peripheral card has been previously used with the main card and assigning a first new ID value to the first peripheral card if the first peripheral card has not been previously used with the main card. The method also includes storing the first new ID value with the received first MAC address in memory of the main card.

Abstract: A reset pin of a non-volatile read/write memory, which stores boot code, is provided with a reset signal in response to a system reset output by a watchdog timer or other external circuitry. The reset signal causes the non-volatile read/write memory to be placed into read mode. Accordingly, even when a system reset occurs while the non-volatile read/write memory is in write mode, a hang state can be avoided since the memory will be reset to read mode before attempting to read boot code for a reboot operation.