NEC POWERMATE 8100 Series, Service And Reference Manual

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4-14 System Board
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 POST copies the ROM BIOS into RAM (shadowing) for
maximum performance.
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 between 32 MB and 384 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) or 72-bit (ECC) 16-, 32-, 64-, and 128-MB DIMMs.
See “DIMM Sockets” for a list of supported DIMMs.
Hardware Monitor
The National Semiconductor Heceta LM80 chip provides economical
instrumentation capabilities for reduced cost of PC ownership when the system
is used with the LANDesk
®
Client Manager. This single-chip application-
specific integrated circuit (ASIC) features:
„
integrated ambient temperature sensor
„
power supply voltage monitoring to detect excessively high or low
voltage levels
„
registers for storing POST hardware test results and error codes
„
remote reset capabilities from a remote peer or server through LANDesk
Client Manager v.3.2.
When ranges for temperature or voltage are exceeded, an interrupt is activated.
The hardware monitor component connects to the ISA bus as an 8-bit I/O
mapped device.
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
may need to be jumpered if used in a system running the Windows NT
®
operating system.)