Resource Allocations 
Steve Paul / Colin J. Fretwell 
Technical Marketing - Mobile Products Group

With the Ultra 2000 and other PC products, all sixteen IRQs may be used by the system as shipped from the factory. This makes it necessary to disable on board device(s) to make IRQs available to PCMCIA and other add-in cards. The following table lists the Ultra 2000’s IRQ resource allocations and suggests which devices may be disabled to free resources for your PCMCIA cards.

IRQ	System	Mobile Media Dock	Can be Disabled	
0	System Timer     		No	
1	Keyboard		No	
2	Interrupt Controller		No	
3	* Available	* Available	No	
4	COM Port 1 		Yes	
5	ESS1878 Audio Controller		Yes	
6	Floppy Disk Drive		No	
7	ECP Parallel Port		Yes	
8	Real Time Clock		No	
9	TI1131 Cardbus slot 1 (lower slot)	TI1131 Cardbus slot 3 (lower slot)	No	
10	TI1131 Cardbus slot 2 (upper slot)	TI1131 Cardbus slot 4 (upper slot)	No	
11	Universal Modem Card	Universal Modem Card	Yes	
12	PS/2 Mouse Port		No	
13	Floating Point Processor		No	
14	Hard Disk Drive Controller		No	
15	* Available	** USB / CD-ROM / MM Dock	No	

* Note:  When using the Ultra 2000 only, the shipping configuration is with Infrared and Docking Resources disabled in CMOS Setup, making IRQ3 and IRQ15 available.  If Infrared is enabled in CMOS Setup then IRQ3 will not be available. If Docking Resources is enabled in CMOS Setup then IRQ15 is not available.  If both are enabled then no IRQ’s are available.  If no IRQ’s are available, and additional resources are needed, then it is necessary to free up any IRQ’s that can be disabled(see table).
  
In order to use the devices in the Mobile Multi Media Dock it is necessary to enable Docking Resources in CMOS setup. When Docking Resources are enabled the Ultra 2000 allocates IRQ15 to the Mobile Multi Media Dock, regardless of whether or not the system is docked, leaving IRQ3 available provided Infrared is not enabled.  If additional IRQ’s are needed, it would be necessary to disable those devices that can be disabled(see table) as long as they are not in use.

** Note: To install USB on the Ultra 2000 you must run the USB Setup program from START / PROGRAMS / INSTALL UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS.  Prior to running USB Setup, the system must not be connected to either the Port Replicator or the Mobile Multi Media Dock.  Having installed USB, when the Ultra 2000 is attached to the Mobile Multi Media Dock you will not be able to use the CD-ROM in the Mobile Multi Media Dock, the CD-ROM drive must be in the system.

Freeing IRQ’s:

Based on the table above IRQ’s (4,5,7,11) can be made available if needed.  The following steps allow you to free up these IRQ’s.

Communications Port(COM1) – IRQ 4:

•	Select Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Ports(COM&LPT) / Communication Port(COM1).
•	Click on Properties.
•	Check the box under Device Usage to Disable in this Hardware Profile.

Sound, Video and Game Controller – IRQ 5:

•	Select Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Sound, video and game controllers
•	Click on ES1878 Control Interface.
•	Click on Properties.
•	Check the box under Device Usage to Disable in this Hardware Profile.

•	Click on ES1878 Plug and Play AudioDrive.
•	Click on Properties.
•	Check the box under Device Usage to Disable in this Hardware Profile.

•	Click on ESS Gameport Joystick.
•	Click on Properties.
•	Check the box under Device Usage to Disable in this Hardware Profile.

ECP Printer Port – IRQ 7:

•	Select Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Ports(COM&LPT) / ECP Printer Port.
•	Click on Properties.
•	Check the box under Device Usage to Disable in this Hardware Profile.

Sportster WinModem PC Card – IRQ 11:

•	Select Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Ports(COM&LPT) / Sportster WinModem PC Card.
•	Click on Properties.
•	Check the box under Device Usage to Disable in this Hardware Profile.

Infrared - IRQ 3:

To disable Infrared and free up IRQ 3, you must disable Infrared in CMOS setup.

IRQ Sharing:

IRQ9 and IRQ10 are used concurrently for the cardbus controllers in both the system and the media dock. This is accomplished through IRQ sharing. IRQ sharing is a process that can be implemented using the Peripherals Connect Interface (PCI) bus, which has the ability to work with level-triggered interrupts. Before PCI, only edge-triggered interrupts were available using the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus. Edge-triggered interrupts operate by monitoring the “change of state” of a signal from low to high (positive trigger) or high to low (negative trigger). This type of trigger is a single instance event and can only indicate a single device request. Level-triggered interrupts operate by monitoring the “changed” state of a signal and therefore can be monitored at more than one instance in time and can be used by multiple devices to indicate a request at virtually the same time. These requests are then serialized (organized in sequence) by the PCI bus controller, which can then identify the requesting device.

Cardbus:

Due to the yet unrealized design goals of cardbus, some PCI bus controllers, such as the one in the Ultra 2000, have difficulties sharing Cardbus devices on a single interrupt. This has led to the implementation of a dual IRQ cardbus solution(IRQ9 and IRQ10). With the inability to share cardbus cards on a single interrupt in these systems it became necessary to use two IRQs.  This allows for the use of two cardbus cards in the system. However it must be kept in mind that two cardbus cards are currently not supported on the same IRQ on the Ultra 2000. By reviewing the table above, one should be able to avoid any conflict that will arise in the unsupported configuration.