Copyright
©
2012
congatec
AG
TCEDm10
34/94
6
conga Tech Notes
The conga-TCA has some technological features that require additional explanation. The following section will give the reader a better
understanding of some of these features. This information will also help to gain a better understanding of the information found in the System
Resources section of this user’s guide as well as some of the setup nodes found in the BIOS Setup Program description section.
6.1
Intel
®
Matrix Storage Technology
The Intel
®
CG82NM10 (NM10) PC
H provides support for Intel
®
Matrix Storage Technology, allowing AHCI functionality.
6.1.1
AHCI
The Intel
®
CG82NM10 (NM10) PCH provides hardware support for Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI), a new programming interface for
SATA host controllers. Platforms supporting AHCI may take advantage of performance features such as no master/slave designation for SATA
devices (each device is treated as a master) and hardware-assisted native command queuing. AHCI also provides usability enhancements
such as Hot-Plug.
6.2
Intel
®
Processor Features
6.2.1
Thermal Monitor and Catastrophic Thermal Protection
Intel
®
Atom™ D2000/N2000 series processors have a thermal monitor feature that helps to control the processor temperature. The integrated
TCC (Thermal Control Circuit) activates if the processor silicon reaches its maximum operating temperature. The activation temperature, that
the Intel
®
Thermal Monitor uses to activate the TCC, cannot be configured by the user nor is it software visible.
The Thermal Monitor can control the processor temperature through the use of two different methods defined as TM1 and TM2. TM1 method
consists of the modulation (starting and stopping) of the processor clocks at a 50% duty cycle. The TM2 method initiates an Enhanced Intel
Speedstep transition to the lowest performance state once the processor silicon reaches the maximum operating temperature.
Note
The maximum operating temperature for Intel
®
Atom™ D2000/N2000 series processors is 100°C.
Two modes are supported by the Thermal Monitor to activate the TCC. They are called Automatic and On-Demand. No additional hardware,
software, or handling routines are necessary when using Automatic Mode.