Product Overview 1-59
Functional Overview
Note We strongly recommend that the microcode bundled with the system software be used as a
package. Overriding the bundle could possibly result in incompatibility between the various
interface processors in the system.
The default operation is to load the microcode from the bundled image. At system startup, an internal
system utility scans for compatibility problems between the installed interface processor types and
the bundled microcode images, then decompresses the images into running memory (RAM). The
bundled microcode images then function the same as images loaded from the individual microcode
ROMs on the processor modules. You can override the default and instruct the system to load a
specific microcode image from a Flash memory file or from the microcode ROM with the
microcode [card type] flash [file name] command.
The show microcode command lists all of the microcode images that are bundled with the system
software image. In order to support online insertion and replacement (OIR), the system loads a
microcode image for all available processor types.
Following is an example of the show microcode command:
Router# show microcode
Microcode bundled in system
Card Microcode Target Hardware Description
Type Version Version
---- --------- --------------- -----------
EIP 10.1 1.x EIP version 10.1
FIP 10.2 2.x FIP version 10.2
TRIP 10.1 1.x TRIP version 10.1
AIP 10.5 1.x AIP version 10.5
FEIP 10.1 1.x FEIP version 10.1
FSIP 10.6 1.x FSIP version 10.6
HIP 10.2 1.x HIP version 10.2
MIP 11.0 1.x MIP version 11.0
Router#
Note Beginning with Cisco IOS Release 11.1(1), CIP microcode images are no longer bundled
with the Cisco IOS image bundles. CIP microcode images are bundled separately, and available on
Flash memory cards, floppy disks, through TFTP, and on CIO. Refer to CIO for CIP loader
instructions about how to obtain updated CIP microcode images for your system.
The microcode version and description lists the bundled microcode version for each processor type,
which is not necessarily the version that is currently loaded and running in the system. A microcode
image that is loaded from ROM or a Flash memory file is not shown in this display. To display the
currently loaded and running microcode version for each processor type, issue the show controller
cxbus command.
The target hardware version lists the minimum hardware revision required to ensure compatibility
with the new software and microcode images. When you load and boot from a new bundled image,
the system checks the hardware version of each processor module that it finds installed and compares
the actual version to its target list.