6
AC 97 Audio Codec
The AC 97 Audio codec is compliant with the AC 97 2.1 specifi-
cation, and supports 18-bit ADC (Analog Digital Converter) and
DAC (Digital Analog Converter) resolution as well as 18-bit
stereo full-duplex codec with independent and variable sampling
rates. Further features include support for four analog line-level
stereo inputs.
Expansion Options
Five 32-bit PCI slots, an AGP slot, and an AMR slot provide
plenty of expansion potential. The MS7177C PCI slots support
Ultra DMA33/66 bus mastering with transfer rates up to 33/66
MB/sec.
Integrated I/O
The mainboard has a full set of I/O ports and connectors. The
I/O template on the backplane includes two PS/2 ports for
mouse and keyboard, two serial port, one parallel port, one
MIDI/game port, two USB ports with an onboard header provid-
ing two extra USB ports, and audio jacks for microphone, line-in
and line-out. The board includes two PCI IDE channels and a
floppy disk drive interface.
Keyboard Power on Feature
Using the system BIOS setup program, you can configure the
system to turn on using a keyboard-typed password. A green
keyboard is not required.
Programmable Firmware
The mainboard includes Award BIOS that allows BIOS setting of
CPU parameters. This fully programmable firmware enhances
the system features and allows users to set such items as power
management, CPU and memory timing, and modem wake-up
alarms. The firmware can also be used to set parameters for
different processor clock speeds so that you don’t need to
change mainboard jumpers and switches.
This concludes Chapter 1. The next chapter will cover installing
and building a working system.
