Memory
Management / Cabling
& Termination / Version of
Software / Using
16-bit Video Card / Using
Interrupts
The memory on the 5136-SD card isn't enabled until you run the loader. Since the memory manager runs before the card can be loaded, the memory manager will try to use the area to be occupied by the card unless you specifically exclude it. The memory is excluded by adding a parameter to the line in the config.sys file that starts the memory manager. If you're running under Windows, you must also exclude the card memory in the system.ini file using the EmmExclude command.
If you're having problems with communication, retries, etc., take a careful look at your network. The network should be terminated at the physical ends of the network and nowhere else. The 5136-SD card does not have a built-in terminator; you'll have to terminate it externally if it's at the end of the network. Refer to the documentation for each device on the network to see whether it has a terminator; there's no general way to tell. In addition, devices like the 1784-KT card may or may not have a terminator enabled. It depends on how the software you're using is configured. If it's set for "direct" there's a terminator; if it's set for "multi-drop" there isn't one.
If it's a revision 2 card (6-position DIP switch, rev 1 was 8), you need a module version number 5.00 or greater. Otherwise the hardware on the card doesn't get initialized properly and the loader gives you an error. In addition, we are constantly making improvements to the card software. If you're having problems, the first thing you should try is using the latest card software. You can download it from the SST ftp server.
If your video card is set for 16-bit access it may result in large areas of memory (A000-BFFF and C000-DFFF) being configured for 16-bit access. When your application tries to access the 5136-SD card, it sees every other byte as FF, and the loader returns an error. Try running the card at an address in the range E000-EFFF (this doesn't work on all computers). Otherwise, the solution is to configure the video card for 8-bit access. You'll pay a small penalty in performance but it probably won't be noticeable. How you reconfigure it depends on the video card; check the documentation and software that came with it.
If
you've changed from a revision 1 5136-SD card to a revision 2 and
your application uses interrupts, you have to remember that on
the revision 1 card, the interrupt level was set by the DIP
switches on the card while on the revision 2 card, it's set by
writing to a register on the card. (The default is for no
interrupt to be enabled). You usually set the interrupt by
passing the interrupt number as a parameter to the loader.
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