Abstract: An adapter card which includes a non volatile memory for containing configuration parameters for establishing one of a plurality of configurations for the adapter card, as well as a pair of mapping bits which define the selected configuration. A default configuration is provided which places the adapter card in the legacy configuration during an initial system power up. The default mode also enables the adapter card to listen for a plug and play initialization key sequence, and switch the card configuration to a plug and play configuration. A companion utilities program permits access to the EEPROM for establishing a new set of configuration parameters in the EEPROM, and to change the mapping bits.

Abstract: An adapter card which includes a non volatile memory for containing configuration parameters for establishing one of a plurality of configurations for the adapter card, as well as a pair of mapping bits which define the selected configuration. A default configuration is provided which places the adapter card in the legacy configuration during an initial system power up. The default mode also enables the adapter card to listen for a plug and play initialization key sequence, and switch the card configuration to a plug and play configuration. A companion utilities program permits access to the EEPROM for establishing a new set of configuration parameters in the EEPROM, and to change the mapping bits.

Abstract: A controller and a properly equipped peripheral device of a computer system easily exchange messages having a compressed data format. Both the controller and the peripheral device are configured to communicate using a predefined basic command set employing a predefined communications format. The controller first verifies that the peripheral device supports a second predefined communications format in addition to the first predefined communications format. Compared to the first format, the second format utilizes messages with greater compression, i.e., an optimized bit stream ("OBS"). The controller next sends the peripheral device a number of commands, including a command of the basic command set accompanied by an OBS enable code. In the case of a write operation, the controller also sends the peripheral device an encoded dataset having the second predefined communications format and representing an underlying unencoded dataset.