Importance

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Abstract

A method of individually isolating a circuit board that has been added to an expansion slot of a computer system. If a conflict exists between the circuit board and other resources of the computer system, the present invention isolates the memory resource requirements of the circuit board from the computer system. The memory resources requirements of the circuit board may be isolated from the computer system by disabling access to the memory of the computer system which is generally designated for circuit board use. Access to this memory may be disabled by disabling an address line of the expansion slot in which the circuit board has been added. In a computer system utilizing an industry standard bus system the present invention disables address A19 of the expansion slot. A latch is typically coupled to the address line corresponding to the memory range generally designated for circuit board use for selectively disabling the address line so that memory resources requirements of the circuit board is isolated from the computer system. The present invention also may isolate the input and output resource requirements of the circuit board from the computer system while the memory resources are isolated. The input and output resource requirements of the circuit board may be isolated by selecting a control line that prevents the circuit board from communicating with input and output lines of computer system.

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First Claim