User Manual

UAD Powered Plug-Ins Manual - 64 - Using UAD Powered Plug-Ins
Multiple Cards
When multiple UAD cards are installed in the host computer, the CPU and
memory load of the cards are automatically balanced dynamically in real-
time. With multiple cards there is no major difference in operating proce-
dures, except that more Powered Plug-Ins can be loaded in the session.
Note: For information about authorizing copy-protected plugins on multiple
cards, see “Authorizing Multiple Cards” on page 67.
Power
Requirement
Up to four UAD cards can be installed simultaneously in the host computer.
Each UAD card uses a maximum of 14 watts of 5 volt power from the PCI bus.
The PCI specification provides for up to 25W per device, however some host
systems don't provide (or require) this much power.
Important: If insufficient power is available to the UAD cards, unpredict-
able behavior may result.
Multicard Use The UAD card that has the lowest resource usage will receive the next Pow-
ered Plug-In load. Note that an individual UAD plugin cannot be split across
two (or more) UAD cards.
For example, let’s say you have two UAD cards installed, the UAD Meter dis-
plays 90%, you load another UAD plugin that requires 6% CPU, yet you get
a “plugin unable to load” message. This would occur if both cards are al-
ready at 95% (the meter shows the total available CPU, not the per-card
CPU), so a 6% plugin can’t load.
System Info
Window
UAD CPU and memory resources used for each installed card, and the ability
to enable/disable individual cards, is displayed in the System Information
window (see page 37).
Disabling Cards Individual UAD cards can be disabled using the Card Enabled function (see
page 36). This can be useful, for example, if creating a session on a system
with multiple cards that will be transferred to a system with fewer cards.
Note: For optimum results, quit any applications using UAD plugins before
disabling/enabling cards.
If a Powered Plug-In is loaded on a card then that card is subsequently dis-
abled, an error message will be displayed. This occurs because a plugin is as-
signed to a card when it is first instantiated. It stays assigned to the same card
until it is de-instantiated (i.e. removed from the insert slot).