Dell PRECISION T3600 Technical Manualbook page 48

November 23, 2011
Subject: Statement of Volatility – Dell Precision Workstation T3600
Gentlemen:
The Dell Precision Workstation T3600 contains both volatile and non-volatile (NV)
components. Volatile components lose their data immediately upon removal of power
from the component. Non-volatile components continue to retain their data even after the
power has been removed from the component.
The following memory components are present in the T3600:
BIOS Configuration
The BIOS information is stored in two flash ICs, one 8 MByte and one 4 MByte.
These devices are identified as U_BIOS1 and U_BIOS2 on the motherboard. These
parts contain the boot code and data necessary to take the hardware from a power-
off or low-power state to a state where it is ready to be managed by the operating
system. No information pertaining to user applications or data is stored in these
devices, however, they do store administrator and/or hard drive encryption
passwords if those features are enabled by the user.
Embedded Controller
The Embedded Controller contains 256 kByte of non-volatile storage space and is
identified as U_EC1 on the motherboard. The EC contains the software necessary to
manage low-level control functions on the motherboard such as thermal control.
No information pertaining to user applications or data is stored in the U_EC1 device.
The embedded controller also contains 8.25 kBytes of volatile memory space. The
contents of this memory space are lost when power is removed from the system.
PCH CMOS
The PCH, identified as U_PCH, contains a 256 Byte battery-backed memory. This
memory contains custom configuration data required by the BIOS to boot the
system. It does not store passwords or other user level data. The contents of this
space are lost, after several minutes, if the coin-cell battery is removed from the
motherboard.
TPM 1.2 (Trusted Platform Module) Security Device
This device (identified as U_TPM) stores TPM configuration data used by the
hardware and the security software offered by Dell. Encrypted user keys generated
by the TPM device for use by the security software are stored in this NVM.
All other components on the motherboard will lose data once power is removed from the
system. Primary power loss (unplug the power cord) will destroy all user data in the main
system memory (DDR3 DIMMs) and the on-board graphics and storage interface devices.
However, the user should note that under some circumstances (for example, cold
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