Okay, since no one is replying to this thread, rather than let it languish any further, if I can, I'd like to re-state the question.
From earlier posts, clearly we see that VMware HAS the necessary drivers, but it's just not detecting the AIC device and loading them.
I think what we all need is a clear process to follow via the command console to manually force VMware to load the necessary driver.
I.e., is there an XML file to edit? Which one? Where is it, what changes need to be made, etc., etc.
If we could have this process -- how to manually specify additional drivers to load -- laid out clearly, I think it would solve a lot of people's problems.