Chipset; Direct Media Interface; Pci Express 2.0 Interface; Sata Interface - Dell PowerEdge T310 Technical Manual

Dell

8 Chipset

The Dell™ PowerEdge™ T310 planar incorporates the Intel
3420 or Platform Controller Hub (PCH), a highly integrated I/O controller. A number of high-level
features are supported by the chipset on PowerEdge T310, as detailed in the following sections.

8.1 Direct Media Interface

Direct Media Interface (DMI) is the chip-to-chip connection between the processor and chipset. This
high-speed interface integrates advanced priority-based servicing allowing for concurrent traffic and
true isochronous transfer capabilities. Base functionality is completely software-transparent,
permitting current and legacy software to operate normally.

8.2 PCI Express 2.0 Interface

The Intel 3420 provides up to 8 PCI Express Root Ports, supporting the PCI Express Base Specification,
Revision 2.0. Each Root Port supports up to 2.5GT/s for fast access to peripheral devices and
networking with up to eight PCI Express 2.0 x1 ports, configurable as x2 and x4 depending on
motherboard designs.

8.3 SATA Interface

The Intel 3420 chipset has two integrated Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers that support
independent DMA operation on up to six ports, supports data transfer rates of up to 3Gb/s (300MB/s),
and offers two modes of operation:
•
Legacy mode that uses I/O space
•
Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) mode that uses memory space (software
that uses legacy mode will not have AHCI capabilities)

8.4 PCI Interface

The Intel 3420 PCI interface provides a 33MT/s, Revision 2.3 PCI interface implementation. The
chipset integrates a PCI arbiter that supports up to four external PCI bus masters in addition to the
internal Intel 3420 chipset requests. This allows for combinations of up to four PCI down devices and
PCI slots.

8.5 Low Pin Count Interface

The Intel 3420 implements an LPC Interface as described in the LPC 1.1 Specification. The Low Pin
Count (LPC) bridge function of the Intel 3420 resides in PCI Device 31:Function 0. In addition to the
LPC bridge interface function, D31:F0 contains other functional units including DMA, interrupt
controllers, timers, power management, system management, GPIO, and RTC.

8.6 Serial Peripheral Interface

The Intel 3420 implements a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) as an alternative interface for the BIOS
flash device. An SPI flash device can be used as a replacement for the FWH, and is required to
support Gigabit Ethernet, Intel
Technology.
The Intel 3420 chipset supports up to two SPI flash devices with speed up to 50MT/s using two-chip
select pins.
PowerEdge T310 Technical Guide
®
Active Management Technology, and integrated Intel Quiet System
®
3420 processor series chipset and the Intel
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