PCI Express Card Firmware Update



Note: This page describes an issue with PCI Express cards that can only occur under a Linux OS.

Interrupts Used With Meinberg PCI Express Cards

Our GPS, IRIG and DCF77 PCI Express cards use periodic interrupts once per second to serve the NTP daemon under Linux with timing information. This has already been working with our PCI devices for many years. But recently we found out a potential problem with our new PCI Express cards when periodic hardware interrupts operate in parallel with direct I/O accesses to the card. Periodic interrupts are automatically switched on when the NTP daemon is running. If a user application or one of the tools included in the driver package accesses the card at the same time as NTP the Linux system might hang or crash under some circumstances.

To avoid this potential problem, the Linux driver as well as the firmware of the PCI Express card should be upgraded. If the Linux driver package with version 3.0.0 or above is installed, it checks the firmware/ASIC version of the installed card and displays a warning message, if the firmware version is outdated.

Older firmware versions might still be used with the current Linux driver, but I/O accesses to the card will be inhibited when hardware interrupts are activated (as used by ntpd). So an upgrade of the card is strongly recommended.

Note: Linux driver versions below 3.0.0 will not work with cards that run with the new PEX firmware versions!

Upgrade Instructions

There are three different firmware update programs for our PCI Express cards available. A serial crossover cable (Null-Modem) has to be used to program the PCI Express cards via a serial port of a Windows PC.

GPS170PEX: jamflash_gps170pex_v116_jam_v305.exe
TCR511PEX: jamflash_tcr511pex_v109_jam_v404_noreboot.exe
PEX511: jamflash_pex511_v107_jam_v203.exe

OS: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/NT/XP/2k3/Vista

Please proceed as follows:

  • Download the correct update program for your card.
  • Connect the card's COM0 RS232 port with a free COM port of the PC by using a serial crossover cable.
    Note: Using a USB-to-Serial converter might cause problems! Please use a native RS232 port instead.
  • Put the card into bootstrap mode. This can be done by carefully pressing the BSL button which is behind a small hole of the slot bracket. You might use a pencil for this.
  • Start the correct upgrade program for your card.
  • Select the proper PC's COM port.
  • Start the update process by pressing the Jam & Flash Button. The upgrade process must not be interrupted!

The self-extracting archives include a README file for more detailed upgrade instructions.

Please contact support@meinberg.de or your local representative if you have further questions.

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