Table of Contents
Advertisement
System BIOS
The PCI-compatible BIOS is contained in a 4-Mb flash memory device on the system board.
The BIOS provides Power-On Self-Test (POST), system Setup program, PCI auto-configuration
utility, and BIOS recovery code.
The Flash ROM allows fast, economical BIOS upgrades. The Flash ROM is a reprogrammable
EPROM containing both the system and video BIOS. Using the Flash ROM to change the ROM
BIOS provides the following advantages:
BIOS upgrade is performed quickly and easily
!
expense of replacing ROM BIOS chips is eliminated, so system maintenance costs are
!
reduced
less chance of inadvertently damaging the system board than when physically replacing
!
ROMs
network administrators can exercise company-wide control of BIOS revisions.
!
The BIOS programs execute the Power-On Self-Test, initialize processor controllers, and
interact with the display, diskette drive, hard drives, communication devices, and peripherals.
The system BIOS also contains the Setup Utility.
The Flash ROM allows the system and video BIOS to be upgraded with the BIOS Update
Utility, without having to physically remove the ROM (see Section 2 for further information on
the BIOS Update Utility). The Flash ROM supports the reprogramming of the system BIOS and
the video BIOS.
System Memory
The system comes with from 64 MB to 512 MB of SDRAM installed in DIMM sockets on the
system board.
The memory configuration consists of three sockets. The DIMM sockets accept 168-pin, 64-bit
(non-ECC) 64-, 128-, and 512-MB DIMMs. See the "Sample DIMM Memory Upgrade Paths"
table for a list of supported DIMMs.
Plug and Play
The system comes with a plug and play BIOS in support of plug and play technology. Plug and
play simplifies setup procedures for installing plug and play expansion boards. With plug and
play, adding a plug and play expansion board is done by turning off the system, installing the
board, and turning on the system. There are no jumpers to set and no system resource conflicts
to resolve. Plug and play automatically configures the board. (Some plug and play devices might
need to be jumpered if used in a system running the Windows NT operating system.)
PCI/IDE Ports
The system board has two high-performance PCI/IDE ports: a primary port and a secondary
port. The primary PCI/IDE port has an enhanced IDE interface that supports PIO Mode 4
devices with 100 MB per second maximum burst rate data transfers on the high-performance
Ultra DMA bus. The port supports Ultra DMA/66/100.
The installed hard drive is connected as a master device on the primary PCI/IDE port. The
installed CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive is connected to the secondary PCI/IDE port as a
master device. The hard drive is connected to the primary port with a two-connector Ultra
DMA/66/100 40-pin, 80-conductor cable. The CD-ROM or DVD-ROM is connected to the
secondary port with a standard IDE cable.
System Board 4-9
Advertisement
Table of Contents
