Enhanced Ide Interface; Serial Ata; Expandability; Bios - Intel D945GCNL - Desktop Board Motherboard Product Manual

Enhanced IDE Interface

The desktop board's IDE interface handles the exchange of information between the
processor and peripheral devices such as hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives. The
interface supports:
• Up to two IDE devices (such as hard drives)
• ATAPI-style devices (such as CD-ROM drives)
• Older PIO Mode devices
• Ultra DMA-33 and ATA-66/100 protocols

Serial ATA

The desktop board supports four Serial ATA channels (3.0 Gb/s) via ICH7, connecting
one device per channel.

Expandability

For system expansion, the desktop board provides the following:
• One PCI Express x16 connector
• One PCI Express x1 connector
• Two PCI bus connectors

BIOS

The BIOS provides the Power-On Self-Test (POST), the BIOS Setup program, the
PCI/PCI Express and IDE auto-configuration utilities, and the video BIOS. The BIOS is
stored in a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) Flash device.
The BIOS can be updated by following the instructions on page 55 in Chapter 3.

Serial ATA and IDE Auto Configuration

If you install a Serial ATA or IDE device (such as a hard drive) in your computer, the
auto-configuration utility in the BIOS automatically detects and configures the device
for your computer. You do not need to run the BIOS Setup program after installing a
Serial ATA or IDE device. You can override the auto-configuration options by
specifying manual configuration in the BIOS Setup program.
Desktop Board Features
17