Technical Reference Guide

5.9.7 NIC UPGRADING/CHANGING

The integrated NIC may be used in conjunction with another NIC card in a PCI slot. These systems provide AOL support for NIC cards that are AOL-compliant to the extent described previously in section 5.9.2. These systems also provide Remote System Alert (RSA) support for such NIC cards as the 3Com 3C905C-TX NIC card. The RSA function is similar to AOL in that the unit provides, even while powered off, system status alert messages to a network console. Note that NIC cards implementing the RSA method do not use the PCI/SMBus for receiving alert information and therefore require, in addition to the PCI connection, an auxiliary cable connection with the system as shown in Figure 5-16.

NIC Card in PCI Slot

AOL/SOS Cable

Network

Cable

System or Backplane

board

AOL/SOS Header P12

Figure 5-15.Remote System Alert Implementation (Generic Representation)

In the Remote System Alert implementation, the NIC card receives event notification directly from the system’s thermal and hood sensors and the LPC47B357 I/O controller over an AOL/SOS cable connection (Figure 5-17). During system-off conditions the NIC card receives auxiliary power from the 3.3 VDC auxiliary power rail on the PCI bus.

System or Backplane Board

 

 

AOL/SOS

 

BIOS Fail

Header

47B37x

1

Hood Sensor I/O Cntlr. NCOS Fail

 

 

Intrusion

 

 

NC

Fan

7

 

Fan Alert

Thermal

NC

 

 

Fan Therm.

 

ASIC

 

 

 

 

 

 

PCI

 

 

Bus

 

Optional NIC Card

SOS

PCI

Connector

PCI

Bus

Not connected on Configurable Minitower models.

Figure 5-16.RSA Logic, Block Diagram

Compaq Evo and Workstation Personal Computers5-37

Featuring the Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Second Edition - January 2003

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Image 124
Compaq W4000 manual Nic Upgrading/Changing, Aol/Sos, Asic PCI, Sos Pci