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What is the NI-488.2 PCMCIA Diagnostic Test (pcmcdiag.exe), and How Do I Use It?

Hardware: GPIB>>Plug-in Controllers>>PCMCIA-GPIB

Problem:
What is the NI-488.2 PCMCIA Diagnostic test (pcmcdiag.exe), and how do I use it?

Solution:
The name PCMCIA Diagnostic Test is actually a bit misleading because pcmcdiag.exe is really more of a utility than a test. When you run pcmcdiag.exe, it obtains a lot of useful information from the card services that are installed. Specifically, it returns the following information:
  • valid card services version?
    Checks to see that the card services that is currently installed is PCMCIA 2.10 compliant. It returns with a message stating whether the card services be used with NI-488.2.

  • card services clients
    Gives a list of all of the installed clients. At the bare minimum, there needs to be at least one client here and it is typically known as an enabler. This is the client that actually takes care of recognizing cards and communicating with card services. If NI-488.2 is currently active, it will also show up here as a client. There can also be clients for PCMCIA memory cards, disk drives, etc., but they are not required for the NI PCMCIA-GPIB card to operate.

  • memory usage
    Shows the memory windows that are currently being used by card services. These memory window are used by card services for a) reading CIS and configuring cards and b) taking care of swapping memory to/from PCMCIA memory cards. This may show up as two separate windows or one large window.

  • available base I/O addresses
    Polls card services for all available addresses. It returns a list of these addresses and their relative size (in hex). If any cards are currently assigned resources it will also show that those particular addresses are assigned.

  • available IRQ
    Polls card services for all of the available interrupts. One of these interrupts will always be assigned and will have a message such as owning client unknown. Card services actually assigns itself an interrupt to take care of card insertion/removal for hot swapping.

  • socket list
    Gives a list of all of the available sockets and shows whether or not there are cards in the socket. It typically shows only two slots, even if a machine has more than two. If a card is in the socket and it is configured, it will show the resources. If the driver is not active and the card is inserted, it will usually show the message "Card in socket but not configured".

With some card services, pcmcdiag will return false or no information. This probably means that the card services is not 100% PCMCIA 2.10 compliant. It does not necessarily mean that the card services will not work with the card.

A sample run of the PCMCIA Diagnostic Test is shown below:

PCMCDIAG : PCMCIA Software Diagnostics Utility (May 1 1995)
Copyright 1995 National Instruments Corporation
All rights reserved

INSTALLED PCMCIA SOFTWARE
-----------------------------------------------

Socket Services installed.

Card Services Release 2.10 (Vendor Release 2.00)
(C) Copyright 1992-1994 by Award Software Inc.
All rights reserved. Disassembly or decompilation prohibited.


This PCMCIA software can be used with N.I. drivers for DOS.
This PCMCIA software can be used with N.I. drivers for Windows.

Press return to continue.


CARD SERVICES CLIENTS
-----------------------------------------------

PCENABLE


Press return to continue.


PCMCIA MEMORY WINDOW USAGE
-----------------------------------------------

Base address 0xCF000, Size 0x01000, IN USE
Owning Client = UNKNOWN (probably used by Card Services to identify cards)

Press return to continue.


PCMCIA I/O WINDOW USAGE
-----------------------------------------------

Base address 0x140, Size 0x020, NOT IN USE
Base address 0x220, Size 0x020, NOT IN USE
Base address 0x2E8, Size 0x008, NOT IN USE
Base address 0x300, Size 0x020, NOT IN USE
Base address 0x370, Size 0x020, NOT IN USE

Press return to continue.


PCMCIA INTERRUPT REQUEST LEVEL (IRQ) USAGE
-----------------------------------------------

Interrupt request level 0x3, NOT IN USE
Interrupt request level 0x5, NOT IN USE
Interrupt request level 0xA, NOT IN USE
Interrupt request level 0xC, IN USE
Owning Client = UNKNOWN (probably used by Card Services to detect cards)

Press return to continue.


ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES TO PCMCIA SOCKETS
-----------------------------------------------

Socket 0
--------
CARD EXISTS BUT NOT IN USE

Socket 1
--------
CARD DOES NOT EXIST IN SOCKET



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Report Date: 08/11/2006
Last Updated: 09/08/2006
Document ID: 40AG575N

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