Patent ID: 7383413

Claim:
A card-cage audio visual signal control system with card ID assignment comprising: (1) a cage enclosure comprising a plurality of slots disposed inside the cage enclosure; (2) a bus disposed inside the cage enclosure, the bus coupled to the slots; (3) a plurality of cards removably installed into the slots, each card performing a specific function with respect to signals applied to the card, each slot defining a physical address for the card installed therein based on the slot location on the bus; (4) a processor disposed inside the cage enclosure, the processor coupled to the bus, the processor comprising a memory, wherein the processor controlling the cards through a unique card ID assigned to each card, the card ID alternating between the physical address and a logical address; (5) a power means disposed inside the cage enclosure, the power means supplying power to the processor and the cards; wherein the logical address as the card ID is assigned by a method comprising: installing the card into any of the slots; applying power to the card; under control of a user, sending a command to the processor to assign a logical address to the card; under control of the processor, in response to the command by the user to assign a logical address to the card, generating the logical address and assigning the logical address as the card ID; under control of the processor, storing the logical address as the card ID in the memory; wherein alternating between the physical address and the logical address is performed a method comprising: installing the card into any of the slots; applying power to the card; under control of the processor, accessing the memory to locate the logical address for the card stored in the memory; under control of the processor, in response to locating the logical address for the card stored in the memory, ignoring the physical address for the card and assigning the logical address as the card ID; under control of the processor, in response to locating no logical address for the card stored in the memory, reading the physical address for the card from the bus and assigning the physical address as the card ID, wherein the physical address for the card is never stored in the memory but rather changes each time the card is moved from slot to slot, while the logical address does not change.