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5.1 Internal Installation

When a SP-ICE-3 Card is installed internally, the Host-PC recognises an additional network adapter connected via the PCIe bus.

In particular, the card's hardware incorporates a network adapter from the Intel Ethernet Controller I210 Series.

Note  Note

  • The Ethernet port of the additional network adapter is wired on the card directly to the Ethernet port in the card's SoC.

    Consequently, from the Host-PC's perspective, an independent Ethernet segment exists between itself and the SP-ICE-3 Card: they are in effect connected via a virtual Ethernet cable[Note 1].

    INT_connection.svg not found.
    Card installed internally.

  • This is similar to the case of External/Peer-to-Peer installation, except that you do not need an real Ethernet cable.

  • A driver for the Intel Ethernet Controller I210 Series must be installed on the Host-PC for correct operation of the SP-ICE-3 Card.

  • If the Host-PC already has access to the Internet when the card is being installed, the driver will normally be downloaded and installed automatically by the Host-PC's Operating System.

  • However, if the Host-PC itself has no Internet access, it will be necessary to obtain the driver installation package by other means, and then to transfer that package to the Host-PC using some suitable medium (such as a USB Memory Stick, for instance.)

    • The driver installation package may be downloaded directly from Intel's website at the following address (valid at the time of writing):

      • https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/64399/Intel-Ethernet-Controller-I210-Series

Internal Installation Procedure

  1. If necessary, please obtain the driver installation package for the Intel Ethernet Controller I210 Series and install it on the Host-PC before proceding to the next step.

  2. Switch off the Host-PC.

  3. Insert the SP-ICE-3 Card in an empty PCIe slot.

  4. Switch on the Host-PC, wait for it to boot[Note 2], and then log in as usual.

  5. If possible, observe the card's Status LEDs, and wait for the Power LED to light continuously: see 18.1 Power LED Signalling for details.

  6. The Host-PC's Device Manager may ask for confirmation that you want to install the necessary driver for the Intel I210 Network Adapter.
    If so, please allow installation of the driver to complete before you proceed to the next step.

  7. Check that the Host-PC identifies the connection to the card as a HOME or WORK network-location type.

    If the network-location is identified as PUBLIC, the card will not be discoverable.

    To change the network type manually, please refer to 5.5.1 How to Change the Network Location identified by the Host-PC.

  8. From the Start Menu on the Host-PC, start the SP-ICE-3 Configuration Tool (SPICE3Config.exe), and click the Discover button.

  9. Wait for the discovery process to finish, which takes about 10 seconds.

  10. Check that the newly installed SP-ICE-3 Card appears in the drop-down list of available cards.

  11. Select the newly installed SP-ICE-3 Card from the drop-down list, and click the Connect button.

  12. Check that the information displayed on the various tabs is correct ( especially Serial Number and Firmware Version).

The newly installed SP-ICE-3 Card is now basically ready for use, but you will probably want to configure it to your application requirements by following the Configuration Procedures.

Manual IPv4 Address Assignment on Host-PC

If your application mandates the use of a fixed, manually assigned IPv4 Address for the Host-PC's interface to the SP-ICE-3 Card, please refer to this information concerning the IPv4 Address range used for Internal and External/Peer-to-Peer cards.

Network Interface Driver Installation

When the SP-ICE-3 Card is installed internally, the Host-PC needs a driver for the Network Interface which the card presents to it.

In most cases, the operating system of the Host-PC will detect the new Network Interface, and automatically download and install the necessary driver.

Sometimes, however, manual intervention is required (for instance, when the Host-PC cannot find a suitable source for the driver binaries due to local network policies).

The following procedure shows you how to install the driver.

  1. First step

  2. Second step

If all has gone well, it should now be possible to access the SP-ICE-3 Card using the SP-ICE-3 Configuration Tool (SPICE3Config.exe): please refer to 17.1 Accessing the card with the SP-ICE-3 Configuration Tool.

Notes

  1. Actually implemented as just a few centimeters of copper traces on the SP-ICE-3 Card's PCB: definitely nothing like a physical Ethernet patch cable at all.

  2. On some Host-PCs, after installing the SP-ICE-3 Card, you might see additional BIOS messages during the boot sequence, similar to the following:

    Copy
    Initializing Intel Boot Agent GE v1.5.50
PXE 2.1 Build 092 (WfM 2.0)

Initializing Intel Boot Agent GE v1.5.50
PXE-E05 :The LAN adapter’s NVM configuration is corrupted or has not been initialized. The Boot Agent
cannot continue.

    These are due to the LAN adapter on the SP-ICE-3 Card, and can be ignored. The PC should start normally.

See Also