Chapter 1
Introduction
©
National Instruments Corporation
1-3
VXIpc 770/870B Series User Manual
VXIpc 770/870B Series Functional Description
This section contains brief functional descriptions of the major
VXIpc 770/870B logic blocks shown in Figure 1-1.
•
Socket 370 CPU
is the socket definition for the Intel Pentium III and
Celeron processors used in the VXIpc 770/870B Series controllers.
•
The
Chipset GMCH
connects the CPU to the memory, I/O controller
hub, and video.
•
The
SO-DIMM
block consists of two 64-bit SDRAM sockets that can
hold up to 512 MB.
•
The
Chipset ICH2
connects to the GMCH, PCI bus, LPC bus, IDE
interface, USB, and Ethernet.
•
The
ATA100 IDE Interface
block is a dedicated PCI-IDE interface
providing fast ATA100 transfers to an internal hard drive. The
IDE
interface is integrated in the chipset.
For the VXIpc-871B and VXIpc-874B only, a CD-ROM drive is
connected to the secondary IDE channel.
•
USB
is also integrated in the chipset and provides two connections to
the Universal Serial Bus.
•
The
10/100 Ethernet
autonegotiates its connection to either a 10 Mbit
or 100 Mbit Ethernet connection.
•
The
Firmware Hub
is a 4 Mbit Flash device for storing the system
BIOS.
•
The
Super I/O
block represents the other peripherals included with the
VXIpc 770/870B Series controllers, including:
–
Two serial ports
–
One parallel port
–
Two PS/2 ports
–
A
Watchdog
timer
You can program the
Watchdog
timer
1
to reset the controller or
generate a trigger.
–
An internal 1.44 MB 3.5 in. floppy drive (VXIpc 870B Series
only)
•
The
PCI GPIB
block provides an interface to the NI-488.2 General
Purpose Interface Bus.
1
Currently, there is no software support for the Watchdog timer. If your application requires the watchdog timer, contact
National Instruments for detailed instructions on how to program this device.