PCI-GPIB Cards Mac OS X and the Apple G5

[sth]

I have looked at the references given to previous questions there are still some unresolved issues.

NI sells 4 different PCI-GPIB cards. Which ones are compatible. The GPIB+ card is listed and the GPIB/LP card has a distinct name and is not listed. BUT there are 2 different cards that NI calls PCI-GPIB. One is based on the TNT4882 chip (older card) and one is based on the TNT5004 chip. Both list OS 9 drivers so I assume they are software compatible. But what about hardware?

Will old PCI-GPIB cards work in newer PCI-X slots. These would be the TNT4882 based cards (P/N 777075) is it only Rev K or later on these cards?

It seems that the newer TNT5004 based cards will work in the 3 V 64 bit PCI-X slots of the just
released speed bumped G5s. Is that true for all revs of the card?

Moving on to software, I have a driver for Mac OS X for the older TNT4882 based cards. It may work on the newer TNT5004 based cards, but it seems not to recognize the card. What is the PCI card name amd PCI product ID for the newer card? Are there register level differences for these two cards?

[Collin M]

All currently shipping PCI-GPIBs have universal signaling and will work in a PCI-X slot.

If you have an older TNT4882-based PCI-GPIB, version K and later will work in a PCI-X slot. All TNT5004-based PCI-GPIBs will work in a PCI-X slot. All versions of the PCI-GPIB/LP will work in a PCI-X slot.

TNT5004-based boards are backwards compatible with TNT4882-based boards for software written using one-chip mode. All NI PCI drivers use one-chip mode.

The PCI vendor ID and PCI Device ID are identical between TNT4882-based and TNT5004-based PCI-GPIBs. The PCI Revision ID did change from 1 to 2 for the TNT5004 based boards.

[Collin M]

I should clarify that the NI driver for Mac OS 9 will only work with TNT4882-based PCI boards, not TNT5004-based PCI boards.

[sth]

Thanks for the answer. Rev K and later for the older boards, and all new boards.

But then your documentation
<>
is incorrect if you look at the "overview" section below the prices which seems to imply that OS 9 will work with this board. The description for the older TNT4882 based board is different and discusses only OS 9.

The description of the board is:
Name: NATI,pci-gpib
Type: ndrv
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-4
Vendor ID: 0x1093
Device ID: 0xc801
Revision ID: 0x0001

And the only thing that changees is the last part that is the revision ID? Is the name field the same since that is what my driver uses to identify the board. I suppose I should change that to use the Dev
ice ID field. I am hoping that the NI DDK which my driver is based uses the "one chip mode" and will work equally well with both the TNT4882 and TNT5004 if you know anything about the NI GPIB DDK and the TNT5004 it would be most helpful.

Are their major differences internally for the PCI-GPIB/LP board so that the GPIB DDK based driver would not work with that? If so, does that have a PCI Name or Device ID that I can tell my driver to service.

Thanks again for the prompt answer.

[sth]

Having just ripped one of my PCI-GPIB cards out and inspected it carefully. How the heck do I determine the revision number? There are all sorts of other codes and assembly numbers but not one of them has a nice stamp "Rev K" or anything like that. Where is the secret decoder ring for this info?

[Collin M]

The version is part of the part number. There should be a label on the front of each board with a part number such as "183617K-01" or "188513B-01". The version is the letter preceding the dash. Note that there will also be a number with a similar format printed directly on the silkscreen on the back of the board but this is not the relevant part number.

Another way to easily determine if the board will work in a 3.3V slot is to examine the part of the PCI card that plugs into the PCI slot. If there are two notches it will work in a 3.3V or 5V slot. If there is only one notch it will only work in a 5V slot. Also, 5V PCI cards cannot physically be inserted into a 3.3V slot.

[Collin M]

I agree that the documentation is not clear.

The board you have described is a TNT4882-based board, which I'm sure you know. A TNT5004-based PCI board would appear identically, except for the Revision ID which would be 0x02.

The driver you have written for the TNT4882 using the DDK should work unmodified with the TNT5004.

The PCI-GPIB/LP has exactly the same architecture as a TNT4882 PCI board, except for the PCI Device ID. I don't have the PCI Device ID at the moment but will update this thread when I get it.

[Collin M]

The PCI Device ID for the PCI-GPIB/LP is the same as the PCI-GPIB, 0xC801. The PCI Revision ID is 1.

[sth]

Thank you. This is just what I needed. Sorry to keep harping on this, but I am only worried about 2 things.

1. There is no way to tell if you have installed a PCI-GPIB/LP board or a PCI-GPIB board (TNT4882) vintage and only if you check the Revision number of the board can you even tell if it is the TNT4882 or TNT5004 version. This makes customizing software hard so they must be very compatible

2. They are register compatible so there should be no driver differences and no way for the sofware to even detect a difference. BUT why then will the Mac OS 9 drivers NOT work with the TNT5004? There must be some difference or it would work transparently with no differences.

I have old PCI-GPIB boards (rev B) and will need to b
uy some new ones. I guess I the TNT5004 boards will work in the new G5s and my driver should work. My driver uses the PCI "name" attribute to recognize the board and if I change it to recognizing from the device ID of 0XC801 and manufacturer ID of 0x1093 then all 3 boards will work interchangeably? I assume the PCI Name attribute is different for the 3 different boards.

-Scott

[Collin M]

You are correct, the PCI-GPIB/LP and PCI-GPIB/TNT4882 appear identical to software. This is because they are 100% identical from a software perspective. They use the same components and have the same register map.

There is not yet a PCI-GPIB/LP based on the TNT5004 but if there was it would also have a PCI Revision of 2 and it would be 100% compatible with the PCI-GPIB/TNT5004.

The PCI-GPIB/TNT4882 (and PCI-GPIB/LP) are compatible with the NI Mac OS 9 driver. The NI Mac OS 9 driver relies on firmware stored in a ROM that only exists on the TNT4882-based boards. The TNT5004-based boards do not implement this ROM. The NI Driver for Mac OS 9 will not work with a TNT5004-based product. TNT5004-based boards do not imp
lement the PCI Expansion ROM that contains the "name" attribute.

That being said, the price of the TNT4882 and TNT5004 PCI boards is identical. The PCI-GPIB/LP costs a little more because it includes a cable. If you need your board to work with the NI Mac OS 9 driver then you should buy a TNT4882-based board. This board will also work with any operating system that a TNT5004-based board currently works with.

If you have written your own driver that does not rely on anything in the PCI Expansion ROM, the TNT4882 and TNT5004 boards will appear identically except for the PCI Revision ID.