Using the WHATADAP.EXE Utility 
==============================
                                               LSS 5.0(0), August 1996 
                                               -----------------------
Summary
-------

The WHATADAP program interrogates any PCI, EISA, MCA, PCMCIA buses and 
'Plug   and   Play'  devices  found  in  a  computer  and  prints  out 
identification information for any adapter card found. This 
information can  be  used as an input  to  the IFADAP program to allow 
selective loading of device drivers.  It  is  intended to be used as a 
help  to  setting up boot device configurations   for   a   particular  
hardware  setup.   Because  the information  returned is read from the  
cards found in the machine, WHATADAP  can  detect  any PCI, EISA, MCA,
PCMCIA or Plug and Play card, not just those produced  by  Madge.  The
program must be run from the DOS command line/batch file environment.

This file has the following sections: 

   1) WHATADAP Options 
   2) WHATADAP Output


1) WHATADAP Options
-------------------

The only option supported by WHATADAP.EXE is /?  which displays a  short 
description of WHATADAP's function.

If  WHATADAP.EXE is run without any options it will display a  one  line 
description   for every card found in the computer. The amount of detail 
will  depend  on the bus type of the card. At  minimum  the  description 
will  contain  both a bus type and a bus identifier to allow the card to 
be specified as an input to the ifadap.exe utility. 


2) WHATADAP Output
------------------

The output of WHATADAP.EXE depends on the bus types of the cards  found.
The general format is:

BUS=<bus type> BID=<bus identifier>  [optional description]

where:

<bus type>  <bus identifier>
----------  ----------------
  MCA        AAAA/B          AAAA is the MCA POS ID data, B is a 1 digit 
                             MCA slot number

  EISA       AAAA/BBB/CC     AAAA is the EISA manufacturer's code, BBB is 
                             the product code number, CC is the EISA slot
                             number 

  PCI        AAAA/BBBB       AAAA is the Vendor ID number
                             BBBB is the Device ID number

  PNP        AAAA/BBBB/C     AAAA is the manufacturer's code
                             BBBB is the logical device ID
                             C is the Card Select Number

  PCMCIA     AAAA/BBBB/CCCC  AAAA is the manufacturers ID
                             BBBB is the manufacturers info 
                             CCCC is the logical socket number

Since  the  information returned by  WHATADAP.EXE  is  read  from  the 
adapter card's memory, it cannot be guaranteed to be  meaningful.   It
depends  on  whether  the  card's manufacturer has implemented the bus 
specification correctly. In all cases, however, the information can be
used as an input to IFADAP. 

With some bus types (notably Plug And Play  and  PCMCIA)  WHATADAP.EXE 
tries  to  get  more  descriptive information from the card if this is 
available. This may help the  user  decide  which  bus  identification 
belongs  to  which  card. The exact form of descriptive information is 
dependent on the card manufacturer.  


Example1
--------
On a computer with an internal PCI/ISA bus, WHATADAP.EXE reported:

BUS=PCI BID=8086/122d   Class:Bridge Device, Subtype:Host/PCI bridge
BUS=PCI BID=8086/122e   Class:Bridge Device, Subtype:PCI/ISA bridge
BUS=PCI BID=8086/1230   Class:Mass Storage, Subtype:IDE controller
BUS=PCI BID=5333/8811   Class:Display Adapter, Subtype:VGA/8514
BUS=PCI BID=10b6/2      Class:Network Adapter, Subtype:Token Ring 
BUS=PNP BID=101/8734/1  Madge Smart 16/4 ISA Clnt. PnP Ringnode
BUS=PNP BID=0/4d24/2    IBM Auto 16/4 Token-Ring ISA Adapter
BUS=PNP BID=9550/6d50/3 3Com 3C509B EtherLink III

Lines 1, 2 and 3 are all describing  a  multifunction  PCI/ISA  bridge 
chip  with  an  embedded IDE disk controller. Line 4 describes the VGA 
video adapter. Line 5 describes the Madge Token Ring network  adapter. 
Line 6 describes a Plug and Play Madge Ringnode on the ISA bus. Line 7 
describes  an  IBM  Auto  Plug and Play adapter on the ISA bus. Line 8 
describes  the  motherboard  embedded  Plug  and  Play  3Com  ethernet 
adapter.

Example2
--------
On a portable computer with a PCMCIA socket:

BUS=PCMCIA BID=141/1/0  MADGE SMART 16/4 PCMCIA RINGNODE 

The description ("MADGE SMART 16/4 PCMCIA RINGNODE") of line 1 was read
fromn the PCMCIA card configuration memory.

Example3
--------
On a Microchannel bus machine:

BUS=MCA BID=74/1
BUS=MCA BID=74/2
BUS=MCA BID=eee7/5

Line  1  describes  a  Madge  MCA ringnode in slot 1. Line 2 describes 
another MCA ringnode in slot 2. Line 3 describes an IBM video  adapter 
in  slot  5.  Note  that  the  MCA  bus  does  not  provide  any extra 
descriptive information for the user: such detail is not part  of  the 
MCA specification. If the user is in any doubt about which line refers 
to which card on the MCA bus the only reliable method is to remove and 
replace cards and to note the different outputs from WHATADAP.EXE. 

Note  the  extra descriptive information provided with the PCMCIA, PCI 
and Plug And Play buses is purely for the users convenience: it should 
not be used as an argument to IFADAP. 

If  the  portable  computer was likely  to  be  powered  up  with  one  
of   two different  network cards (for example, if it was in a docking 
station  or free), then WHATADAP.EXE must be run with the computer  in 
both   possible  combinations.  If,  for  example, the docked computer 
displayed

BUS=PCI BID=8086/122d   Class:Bridge Device, Subtype:Host/PCI bridge
BUS=PCI BID=8086/122e   Class:Bridge Device, Subtype:PCI/ISA bridge
BUS=PCI BID=8086/1230   Class:Mass Storage, Subtype:IDE controller
BUS=PCI BID=5333/8811   Class:Display Adapter, Subtype:VGA/8514
BUS=PCI BID=10b6/2      Class:Network Adapter, Subtype:Token Ring 

and the free computer displayed

BUS=PCMCIA BID=141/1/0  MADGE SMART 16/4 PCMCIA RINGNODE 

then the CONFIG.SYS could contain the lines:

IFADAP BUS=PCI BID=10b6/2 DD=<PCI device driver arguments>
IFADAP BUS=PCMCIA BID=141/1/0 DD=<PCMCIA device driver arguments>

In  this  way the correct device driver is loaded for the environment. 
The advantage of WHATADAP.EXE is that if a manufacturer produces a new 
card, then WHATADAP.EXE can be run again and the new information added 
to CONFIG.SYS because WHATADAP.EXE needs  no special knowledge of  the 
type of card.

                ***** End of WHATADAP.TXT *****
