Editing Plug and play (section)

==History of device configuration==
[[File:Microdigital Super Serial Card SSC.jpg|thumb|A third-party serial interface card for the [[Apple II]]. The user cut the wire traces between the thinly connected '''⧓''' triangles at X1 and X3 and soldered across the unconnected '''◀▶''' pads at X2 and X4 at the center of the card. Reverting the modification was more difficult.]]

{{multiple image|total_width=230
  |image1=Jumperblock-shunts.jpg|alt1=Jumper blocks
  |image2=DIP switch 01 Pengo.jpg|alt2=DIP switches
  |footer='''Left:''' Jumper blocks of various sizes.<br/>'''Right:''' A DIP switch with 8 switches.}}
Some early microcomputer peripheral devices required the end user physically to cut some wires and solder together others in order to make configuration changes;<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.bigmessowires.com/2018/02/12/apple-ii-card-electrical-woes
|title=Apple II Card Electrical Woes |website=BigMESSoWires.com (Big Mess o' Wires)
|quote=On the Disk II card, while the Apple II was idle, I measured 600 mV ... Cut the trace for the B VCC side power supply of 3.3 and use wire wrap wire and solder it to +5v.}}</ref> such changes were intended to be largely permanent for the life of the hardware.

As computers became more accessible to the general public, the need developed for more frequent changes to be made by computer users unskilled with using soldering irons.  Rather than cutting and soldering connections, configuration was accomplished by [[jumper (computing)|jumpers]] or [[DIP switch]]es.
Later on this configuration process was automated: Plug and Play.<ref name=BYTE/>

===MSX===
The [[MSX]] system, released in 1983,<ref>{{cite book |author=Gordon Laing |date=2004
|title=Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=967VdXdc5w4C&q=msx+announced&pg=RA1-PT101 |publisher=Ilex Press|isbn=9781904705390
}}</ref> was designed to be plug and play from the ground up, and achieved this by a system of slots and subslots, where each had its own [[virtual address space]], thus eliminating device addressing conflicts in its very source. No jumpers or any manual configuration was required, and the independent address space for each slot allowed very cheap and commonplace chips to be used, alongside cheap [[glue logic]].
On the software side, the drivers and extensions were supplied in the card's own ROM, thus requiring no disks or any kind of user intervention to configure the software. The ROM extensions [[hardware abstraction|abstracted any hardware differences]] and offered standard APIs as specified by [[ASCII Corporation]].

===NuBus===
[[File:Radius PrecisionColor Series 24X 1993 1 front.JPG|thumb|141x141px|A NuBus expansion card without jumpers or DIP switches]]
In 1984, the [[NuBus]] architecture was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)<ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/15573 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical |year=1984 |title=An examination of architectures for interfacing to the NuBus|hdl=1721.1/15573 |type=Thesis |last1=Pasieka |first1=Michael Stephen }}</ref> as a platform agnostic peripheral interface that fully automated device configuration. The specification was sufficiently intelligent that it could work with both [[Endianness|big endian]] and [[little endian]] computer platforms that had previously been mutually incompatible. However, this agnostic approach increased interfacing complexity and required support chips on every device which in the 1980s was expensive to do, and apart from its use in [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] [[Mac (computer)|Macintosh]]es and [[NeXT]] machines, the technology was not widely adopted.

=== Amiga Autoconfig and Zorro bus ===
In 1984, Commodore developed the [[Autoconfig]] protocol and the Zorro expansion bus for its [[Amiga]] line of expandable computers. The first public appearance was in the CES computer show at Las Vegas in 1985, with the so-called "Lorraine" prototype. Like NuBus, Zorro devices had absolutely no jumpers or DIP switches. Configuration information was stored on a read-only device on each peripheral, and at boot time the host system allocated the requested resources to the installed card.  The Zorro architecture did not spread to general computing use outside of the Amiga product line, but was eventually upgraded as [[Amiga Zorro II|Zorro II]] and [[Amiga Zorro III|Zorro III]] for the later iteration of Amiga computers.

=== Micro-Channel Architecture ===
[[Image:MCA NIC IBM 83X9648.jpg|thumb|200px|An MCA expansion card without jumpers or DIP switches]]
In 1987, IBM released an update to the [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] known as the [[IBM PS/2|Personal System/2]] line of computers using the [[Micro Channel Architecture]].<ref>{{cite web |date=July 10, 2012
|url=https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/430099/ibm_ps_2_25_years_pc_history_slideshow_/?fp=2&fpid=2
|title=The IBM PS/2: 25 years of PC history
|quote=By the time of the PS/2's launch in 1987, IBM PC ... The line launched in April 1987 with ... its new expansion bus, dubbed Micro Channel Architecture.}}</ref> The PS/2 was capable of totally automatic self-configuration. Every piece of expansion hardware was issued with a floppy disk containing a special file used to [[auto-configuration|auto-configure]] the hardware to work with the computer. The user would install the device, turn on the computer, load the configuration information from the disk, and the hardware automatically assigned interrupts, DMA, and other needed settings.

However, the disks posed a problem if they were damaged or lost, as the only options at the time to obtain replacements were via postal mail or IBM's dial-up [[Bulletin board system|BBS]] service. Without the disks, any new hardware would be completely useless and the computer would occasionally not boot at all until the unconfigured device was removed.

Micro Channel did not gain widespread support,<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://techliberation.com/2004/12/09/open-standards-vs-ibm-remembering-the-microchannel-architecture
|title=Open Standards vs. IBM – Remembering the MicroChannel Architecture
|date=December 9, 2004
|quote=the PS/2 based on the proprietary MicroChannel architecture ...  was not what the market demanded}}</ref> because IBM wanted to exclude clone manufacturers from this next-generation computing platform. Anyone developing for MCA had to sign non-disclosure agreements and pay royalties to IBM for each device sold, putting a price premium on MCA devices. End-users and clone manufacturers revolted against IBM and developed their own open standards bus, known as EISA. Consequently, MCA usage languished except in IBM's mainframes.