APOLLO Technical Manual
Getting started with your APOLLO
4
Mount a suitable cooling solution to contact the exposed processor die before the
board is powered on. The BIOS automatically determines the processor installed
and adjusts the settings accordingly. No BIOS modifications are required.
Connecting a floppy disk drive
The APOLLO supports one slimline floppy drive via a flat flex connector. A 26-way flat
flex cable is used to provide a direct connection between the APOLLO board connector
(see
J27 – Slimline floppy drive interface
on page
) and the slimline floppy drive.
Power for the floppy drive is provided over the cable.
The BIOS default configuration assumes that a 1.44MB floppy disk is connected.
You can use the PhoenixBIOS setup to change this to other floppy drive formats.
Connecting a hard disk drive
The APOLLO provides a single primary IDE controller, enabling up to two IDE devices
to be connected. For optimum performance, ATA66 drives and above should use an 80-
way IDE ribbon cable with 40-way connectors. An 80-way cable has additional ground
lines to improve the signal integrity at the higher ATA66 and ATA100 operating speeds.
If you add two drives to a single channel, one should be set up as a ‘master’ and the
other as a ‘slave’. The BIOS automatically detects the hard disk drive(s) during the
POST processes and configures the hardware correctly. The PhoenixBIOS allows either
a master or slave device to be the boot device.
If two drives of different performance capabilities are connected, the hardware supports
each at its maximum operating speed.
The standard APOLLO cable kit provides an 80-way IDE ribbon cable for use
with ATA66 and ATA100 drives.
Connecting a CD-ROM (IDE Type)
If a CD-ROM drive is required in the system, it may be connected in place of a
secondary drive (as detailed above). The CD-ROM should be configured as a ‘slave’
device.
Drivers are required to support a CD-ROM drive under DOS. If a bootable CD is
inserted in the drive, the BIOS can be configured to automatically boot from this CD.
© 2005 Arcom Issue A
15
