PCI Diagnostic software
In brief, this is a suite of tools for hardware developers, engineers, programmers, system builders and the insatiably curious, that allows exploration of your PCI/AGP/PCI Express/CardBus/CompactPCI/PCI-X/PCI HotPlug/etc. hardware at the lowest level. Full source code is of course included, and is 100% freeware.
Some possible uses for these tools include the following:
- Fully Automating hardware recognition during Operating System installation via the -I option.
- Discovering what an "unknown device" is (both by manufacturer and model), so you can obtain drivers and support. A regularly updated database of over 19,000 entries lists virtually every known PCI device and manufacturer on the planet, even those that no longer exist.
- Examining your exact hardware configuration for curiosity or troubleshooting purposes (e.g. Latency, IRQ routing, AGP speed, resource conflicts and many more common problems can all be solved with these tools)
- Assisting with driver development and hardware design - examine your hardware 'live' as the OS/Driver sees it within Windows, and as the BIOS configures it within DOS via the -D option
- Exploring the source code for assistance with developing your own PCI code or hardware drivers
- Keeping up with modern hardware - with full PCI Express and multiple root-bus support via the -R option, PCI32 outperforms older tools tenfold.
- Auditing systems for hardware change: reports can be saved/printed/emailed/etc for reference and auditing purposes
PCI/PCI32 is different to most so-called "Diagnostic" programs, in that it totally bypasses Windows, Drivers, ACPI and the BIOS, and instead communicates directly with the actual hardware at the lowest possible level - unlike so-called diagnostic programs which merely report what the Windows API's and/or registry report, regardless of it's accuracy.
Note: PCI32 does NOT work with any 64-bit version of Windows. PCI32 runs under 32-bit Vista just fine.

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