Front Panel I/O and Control Boards

Intel® Server Platform

SR6850HW4 TPS

 

Figure 34. Front Panel I/O Board

8.2Functional Architecture

This section provides an architectural description of the Server Platform SR6850HW4 Front Panel I/O Board functional blocks.

8.2.1VGA

The Front Panel I/O Board passes the VGA video signals from the Server Platform SR6850HW4 SCSI Backplane Board connector to the Front Panel I/O Board. The video signals originate on the Server Platform E8500HW4 Mainboard and route to the Server Platform SR6850HW4 SCSI Backplane Board through a 100-pin cable.

Using the default operating system video driver options, the VGA signal is mirrored between the rear panel and the front panel of the platform. This design consideration was made to facilitate user debug of an operating system hard failure. When the system is in a failure state, a portable monitor could be attached to the front of the system to determine root cause. Since this is an enterprise server, Intel is not validating the video driver configured with the Front Panel I/O Board VGA connector in a non-mirrored, extended desktop state.

8.2.2USB

The Front Panel I/O Board passes the high-speed USB 2.0 signals from the Server Platform SR6850HW4 SCSI Backplane Board to the three USB ports on the front of the system.

8.2.3NMI Button

The Front Panel I/O Board has an NMI button; this signal is routed to the 30-pin Server Platform SR6850HW4 SCSI Backplane Board connector.

88

Revision 1.0

 

Intel order number D23151-001