[PLUG] 2 NICs

Derek Loree derek at infotects.com
Thu Sep 19 15:55:33 UTC 2002


On Wed, 2002-09-18 at 16:38, Galen Seitz wrote:
> 
> > This was a good read, very informative.  I think the lesson here is
> > (for pci devices): if you can't assign an IRQ to a slot in your BIOS,
> > the only other way to change the IRQ assignment is to put the card in
> > a different slot.  BTW, an easy way to free up IRQ's (15 just isn't
> > enough to go around) is to disable (in the BIOS) any unneeded serial
> > and parallel ports. 
> 
> Sharing IRQs isn't necessarily bad.

This is only theoretical, in practice, I've seen many pci devices that
would exhibit odd behavior, or just wouldn't work because of an IRQ
conflict.  The 3Dfx Voodoo cards are the worst offenders, they MUST have
an IRQ, and it MUST be the only device using it.  Sound cards and NIC's
are next on the list.  The best running systems have one device per IRQ,
this became my system builders mantra.


Derek






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