Abstract: A system and method for detecting the identification of the type of card that is installed in an input/output interface for interconnecting first and second electronic devices, such as a peripheral device and a peripheral control device is disclosed. The cards may be smart or peripheral dependent cards which have different functionality and configuration. Upon start-up, the peripheral device generates a reset signal which causes the card to generate a digital identification that is received by the peripheral device. If the identification indicates that it is a type of card that the peripheral device supports, then the peripheral device operates in the manner specified for that type of card.

Abstract: A system and method for detecting the identification of the type of card that is installed in an input/output interface for interconnecting first and second electronic devices, such as a peripheral device and a peripheral control device is disclosed. The cards may be smart or peripheral dependent cards which have different functionality and configuration. Upon start-up, the peripheral device generates a reset signal which causes the card to generate a digital identification that is received by the peripheral device. If the identification indicates that it is a type of card that the peripheral device supports, then the peripheral device operates in the manner specified for that type of card.

Abstract: A prefetch operation greatly reduces the amount of delay between the transmission of a peripheral device request and the receipt of an I/O card acknowledge for peripheral read data, for example in a network printer environment where the amount of time required to transfer print data from an I/O card to a printer is reduced which, in turn, reduces the amount of time required for the printer to process a print job. The communication protocol between a peripheral device and an I/O card is typically based on a packet data structure, which consists of a header that contains the starting address of the buffer, the data length, and maximum data length of the packet buffer fields which are used for the information transfer between the I/O card and peripheral device; and a buffer for transferring data or messages between the peripheral device and the I/O card. The prefetch operation reduces the possibility of shared memory contention by prefetching the next requested data.