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Compatibility Fields (Word 03h:07h) — Intel
®
82575EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller
324632-003 Intel
®
82575EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Revision: 2.1 Software Developer’s Manual and EEPROM Guide
January 2011 99
4.7.1 Compatibility Fields (Word 03h:07h)
Five words in the EEPROM image are reserved for compatibility information. New bits within these fields
will be defined as the need arises for determining software compatibility between various hardware
revisions.
4.7.2 PBA Number (Words 08h, 09h)
The nine-digit Printed Board Assembly (PBA) number used for Intel manufactured Network Interface
Cards (NICs) is stored in EEPROM.
Through the course of hardware ECOs, the suffix field is incremented. The purpose of this information is
to enable customer support (or any user) to identify the revision level of a product.
Network driver software should not rely on this field to identify the product or its capabilities.
PBA numbers have exceeded the length that can be stored as HEX values in two words. For newer NICs,
the high word in the PBA Number Module is a flag (0xFAFA) indicating that the actual PBA is stored in a
separate PBA block. The low word is a pointer to the starting word of the PBA block.
The following shows the format of the PBA Number Module field for new products.
The following provides the format of the PBA block; pointed to by word 0x9 above:
The new PBA block contains the complete PBA number and includes the dash and the first digit of the 3-
digit suffix which were not included previously. Each digit is represented by its hexadecimal-ASCII
values.
The following shows an example PBA number (in the new style):
Older NICs have PBA numbers starting with [A,B,C,D,E] and are stored directly in words 0x8-0x9. The
dash in the PBA number is not stored; nor is the first digit of the 3-digit suffix (the first digit is always
0b for older products).
PBA Number Word 0x8 Word 0x9
G23456-003 FAFA Pointer to PBA Block
Word Offset Description
0x0 Length in words of the PBA Block (default is 0x6)
0x1 ... 0x5 PBA Number stored in hexadecimal ASCII values.
PBA Number
Word Offset
0
Word
Offset 1
Word
Offset 2
Word
Offset 3
Word
Offset 4
Word
Offset 5
G23456-003 0006 4732 3334 3536 2D30 3033
Specifies 6
words
G2 34 56 -0 03