Ide/Pci-Bus Backboard; Isa Bus; Pci Local Bus; Pci Auto Configuration - NEC PowerMate VP75 User Manual

1-14 Technical Information

IDE/PCI-Bus Backboard

The desktop IDE/PCI-bus backboard provides three ISA expansion slots and one shared
IDE/PCI expansion slot. The backboard is plugged into the bus connector on the desktop system
board. The minitower PCI/IDE bus backboard provides three ISA expansion slots, one dedi-
cated PCI expansion slot, and one shared IDE/PCI expansion slot. The backboard is plugged
into the bus connector on the minitower system board.

ISA Bus

The system board uses the ISA bus for transferring data between the processor and I/O periph-
erals and expansion boards. The ISA bus supports 16-bit data transfers and typically operates at
8 MHz. ISA expansion slot connector pin assignments are provided in
Appendix A.

PCI Local Bus

The industry-standard PCI-bus is a highly-integrated I/O interface that offers the highest perform-
ance local bus available for the Pentium processor. The PCI-bus supports burst modes that send
large chunks of data across the bus, allowing fast displays of high-resolution images.
The high-bandwidth PCI-bus eliminates the data bottleneck found in traditional systems, maintains
maximum performance at high clock speeds, and provides a clear upgrade path to future
technologies. PCI expansion slot connector pin assignments are provided in Appendix A.

PCI Auto Configuration

The system comes with a PCI auto configuration utility that operates in conjunction with the sys-
tem's Setup utility. The utilities automatically configure interrupts, DMA channels, I/O space, and
other parameters to allow addition of PCI boards with minimal intervention.