System Overview 1-11
Real-Time Clock/Calendar
The real-time clock provides system clock/calendar information stored in a non-volatile
memory (NVRAM). The real-time clock battery provides power backup for the real-
time clock.
BIOS
A BIOS and Setup Utility are located in the Flash EPROM on the system board and
include support for system setup and PCI/ISA Plug-and-Play auto-configuration. A
number of security, reliability, and management features also have been incorporated to
meet vital server needs.
IDE Controller
The system includes a dual channel enhanced IDE interface controller. The controller
has a primary and secondary connector located on the system board, each connector
supporting a master and a slave device. The IDE controller provides support for the
internally mounted CD-ROM and an optional tape device.
Network Controller
The system board includes a 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX network controller based on the
Intel 82558 Fast Ethernet PCI Bus Controller. As a PCI bus master, the controller can
burst data at up to 132 MB/sec. The controller contains two receive and transmit FIFO
buffers that prevent data overruns or underruns while waiting for access to the PCI bus.
The controller has the following:
! 32-bit PCI bus master interface (direct drive of bus), compatible with PCI Bus
Specification, Revision 2.1
! Chained memory structure with improved dynamic transmit chaining for
enhanced performance
! Programmable transmit threshold for improved bus utilization
! Early receive interrupt for concurrent processing of receive data
! On-chip counters for network management
! Autodetect and autoswitching for 10 or 100 Mbps network speeds
! Support for both 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps networks, capable of full or half
duplex, with back-to-back transmit at 100 Mbps.
The network status LEDs on the system board indicate:
! Transmit/receive activity on the LAN
! Valid link to the LAN
! 10/100 Mbps transfer mode.