Devices On The Pci Bus; Video Controller; Integrated Drive Electronics (Ide) - HP Vectra VA6 Technical Reference Manual

2 System Board

Devices on the PCI Bus

Devices on the PCI Bus

Video Controller

The desktop HP Vectra VA 6/xxx PC has a Cirrus 5446 graphics chip
connected on the PCI bus with a VESA feature connector integrated on the
system board.
The HP Vectra VA 6/xxx MT PC the HP Vectra XA 6/xxx PC have these
spaces left vacant on the system board, and are supplied with a Matrox
Millennium video controller on board in a PCI accessory slot.
Both types of video system are described in more detail in the next chapter.

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)

The IDE controller is implemented as part of the PIIX3 chip (the PCI/ISA
bridge). It supports Enhanced IDE (EIDE) and Standard IDE. To use the
Enhanced IDE features, though, the drives must be compliant with
Enhanced IDE.
Up to four IDE devices are supported: two (one master and one slave)
connected to the primary channel, and two (one master and one slave) to
the secondary channel. If a single device (a hard disk drive or a CD-ROM
drive) is attached to a channel, it should be in the master position (the
connector that is closest to the system board).
It is possible to have a fast device, such as a hard disk drive, and a slow
device, such as a CD-ROM, on the same channel without affecting the
performance of the fast device. The BIOS sends a command to each drive,
and determines, automatically, the fastest configuration that it supports.
However, in general, the primary channel cable (the one with the grey
connectors) is recommended for hard disk drives, and the secondary
channel cable (the one with the red connectors) for CD-ROM drives.
On the HP Vectra VA 6/xxx MT PC, when the CD-ROM drive is installed in
the Master position of the IDE secondary channel, the hard disk drives
(1.2 GB or 2.5 GB) cannot be installed in the slave position of this channel
(problems could be experienced activating the 32-bit access drivers). The
hard disk drive should be installed in the master position of the secondary
channel with the CD-ROM drive in the slave position.
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