Little Board™/486e Computer P/N 5001561 Revision A 4757 Hellyer Avenue, San Jose, CA 95138 Phone: 408 360-0200, FAX: 408 360-0222, Web: www.ampro.
TRADEMARKS The Ampro logo is a registered trademark, and Ampro, CoreModule, Little Board, StackPlane, MiniModule, and MiniBackplane are trademarks of Ampro Computers, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective companies.
Table of Contents Preface Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ vii Technical Support ............................................................................................................................... vii Introduction General Description ...........................................................................................................................1–1 Features ............
I/O Addresses ............................................................................................................................. 2–11 Interrupt Assignments .............................................................................................................. 2–12 ROM-BIOS Installation of the Serial Ports............................................................................... 2–13 Serial Port Connectors (J11, J13)......................................................................
Utility Connector (J16) .................................................................................................................... 2–55 PC Speaker................................................................................................................................. 2–57 LED Connection ......................................................................................................................... 2–57 Push Button Reset Connection ..................................................
Onboard Peripherals....................................................................................................................3–2 Support Software .........................................................................................................................3–6 Mechanical and Environmental Specifications ...........................................................................
Preface Introduction This manual is for designers of systems based on the Ampro Little Board™/486e single board system. This manual contains information that permits users to create an embedded system customized to specific requirements. Information includes: ! Hardware requirements ! Programming instructions ! Details for integrating it with other equipment Technical Support The Ampro Virtual Technician is available 24 hours a day at http://www.ampro.com, the Ampro Computers, Inc World Wide Web site.
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Chapter 1 Introduction General Description The Little Board™/486e CPU is an exceptionally high integration, high performance, 486DX-based PC/AT compatible system in the EBX form factor. This rugged and high quality single-board system contains all the component subsystems of a PC/AT motherboard plus the equivalent of six PC/AT expansion boards.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual VL-Bus Flat Panel/CRT Display Controller A powerful and flexible local bus video display controller interfaces with both flat panels and CRTs, and offers full software compatibility with all popular PC video standards (VGA, Super VGA, and VESA). All standard resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 pixels and 16 million colors (True Color, in 640 x 480 VGA) are supported. Refer to Tables 3-1 and 3-2 for video specifications. 2M byte of video memory is standard.
Introduction Serial Ports Four PC-compatible RS-232C serial ports are standard. Serial Port features include: ! 16C550-type UARTs ! UARTs are equipped with 16-byte FIFO ! Support for 115K baud rates ! Onboard voltage converters provide the RS-232C voltage levels from the single 5 volt supply ! COM2 can be jumper configured to conform with RS-485 Enhanced Parallel Port One PC parallel port is standard.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Ethernet LAN Interface The Ethernet LAN interface uses Carrier Sense, Multiple Access/Collision Detect (CSMA/CD) for node access and operates at a 10M-bits/second data rate. The Ethernet interface has the following features: ! Contains the logic necessary to send and receive data packets ! Controls CSMA/CD network access technology ! Meets IEEE 802.
Introduction Modular PC/104 Expansion Bus The Little Board/486e CPU provides a PC/104-compatible expansion bus for additional system functions. This bus is a compact version of the standard PC ISA bus and offers compact, selfstacking, modular expandability.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual HALT Testing The Little Board/486e CPU was subjected to Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) as a part of its Engineering Qualification. An independent firm using a standardized procedure performed testing. HALT testing is used during the development of a product to identify its temperature and vibration Operating Limits and Destruct Limits. The stresses applied during this testing greatly exceed those expected during normal operation.
Introduction Software The Little Board/486e CPU can use most commercial and public-domain software developed for the IBM PC and PC/AT. Software development tools such as editors, compilers, and debuggers can be used to develop application code. System requirements can be quickly tailored to your needs using these standard tools with the utilities and drivers supplied with each Little Board/486e CPU. The board’s SETUP function can be used for all system configuration tasks.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Little Board Development Platform Whatever your Little Board application, there is always a need for an engineering development cycle.
Chapter 2 Product Reference Overview This chapter contains the technical information required to install and configure the Little Board™/486e CPU.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–1.
Product Reference J16 Utility/Keyboard J12 IDE Hard Disk J10 Power W5 RS-232/RS-485 (RS-232) J14 Floppy W6 RS-485 Termination (No Enable) J13 Serial 3 & 4 J7 Ethernet J6 RS-485 J15 Parallel Port J11 Serial 1 & 2 W3 Compact Flash Master/Slave W13 Ethernet SEEP (Enable) W2 Byte Wide Configuration (Flash ROM) J2 Compact Flash Card W9 Serial 4 IRQ (IRQ 11) W7 Serial 3/4 IRQ Share (No Share) W8 Serial 3 IRQ (IRQ 10) W11/W12 Video Controller (Enable) W1 Memory SWAP (Enable) W10 LCD Power (5V) P2 PC
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Jumper Configuration Options Ampro installs optional jumpers in default positions so that the Little Board/486e CPU requires no special jumpering for immediate operation. Jumper-pin arrays are designated W1, W2, and so forth. Jumper pins have a 2mm pitch. A square solder pad identifies pin 1 of each jumper array. Table 2–2 provides a summary of jumper use.
Product Reference Table 2–3.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual DC Power Power the module by connecting the DC power supply to the PC/104 expansion bus and connect the voltages to J10. Refer to Table 2–4 for power connections and Table 2–5 for mating connector information. Table 2–4. J10 Power Connector Pin Connection 1 +12VDC ±5% input 2, 3 Ground return 4 +5VDC ±5% input Table 2–5.
Product Reference Power Requirements The Little Board/486e CPU operates on +5VDC (±5%). The ±9V RS-232 voltages are generated on board.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Powerfail Monitor The Little Board/486e CPU has a built-in powerfail circuit that generates a clean reset signal if power falls below 4.65V. It guarantees a minimum 140 mS reset signal, independent of how long the power falls below the 4.65V threshold. To enable the powerfail circuitry, short W14 with a jumper. Non-maskable interrupt (NMI): When the supply voltage falls below (approximately) 4.7 volts, the powerfail logic sends an NMI to the CPU.
Product Reference DRAM There is no DRAM soldered on board. The Little Board/486e CPU will support up to 64M byte of system DRAM. A single vertical 168-pin DIMM socket supporting symmetrical EDO 3.3V modules is used. When the system boots, the BIOS measures the amount of memory installed and configures the internal memory controller. No jumpering or manual configuration is required. The amount of memory found can be displayed by running SETUP.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–6.
Product Reference Serial Ports (J11, J13) Four RS-232C serial ports are included on the Little Board/486e CPU. Serial port 2 provides an optional RS-485 serial interface. Both serial ports support software selectable standard baud rates up to 115.2K baud, 5-8 data bits, and 1, 1.5, or 2 stop bits. The IEEE RS232C specification limits the serial port to 19.2K baud on cables up to 50 feet in length. The serial ports are based on a 16550 UART-compatible controller.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Interrupt Assignments Interrupt 4 (IRQ4) is assigned to Serial 1 and Interrupt 3 (IRQ3) to Serial 2. These assignments can be disabled, but they cannot be changed. Serial 3 and Serial 4 can share their interrupts, using a “wired-or” configuration, they can use independent IRQs, or they can be disabled and use no interrupt at all. Jumper options are provided to independently select the wired-or configuration or independent interrupts for Serial 3 and Serial 4.
Product Reference ROM-BIOS Installation of the Serial Ports The ROM BIOS normally supports Serial 1 as the DOS COM1 device, Serial 2 as the DOS COM2 device, and so on. If a serial port is disabled and there is no substitute serial port in the system, the ROM-BIOS assigns the COM designations as it finds the serial ports, starting from the primary serial port and searching to the last one. For example, if Serial 1 is disabled, the ROM-BIOS assigns COM1 to Serial 2 (unless another Serial 1 is discovered).
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–8.
Product Reference Configuring Serial 2 for RS-485 (J6, W5, W6) Serial 2 provides circuitry for both an RS-232C and RS-485 interface. The port can be configured to support either interface using jumpers. The RS-232C interface appears on J11. The RS-485 interface appears on the two-pin connector, J6. Table 2–10 shows the pinout for J6. Table 2–11 shows the manufacturer’s part number for mating connectors to J6. Table 2–10. RS-485 Serial Port 2 Connector (J6) Pin Signal Name 1 +I/O 2 -I/O Table 2–11.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual The RS-485 interface specification requires that both ends of the twisted-pair cable be terminated with 100-ohm resistors. You can terminate the RS-485 interface on J6 with a resistor provided on the Little Board/486e CPU. To terminate the line, install a jumper on W6, see Table 2–12. Table 2–12.
Product Reference Using the RS-485 Interface The RS-485 interface allows half-duplex operation using a 5 VDC differential interface. This interface provides greater immunity against noise and interference than single-wire interfaces and can drive cable lengths up to 4000 feet reliably at 57.6K bps. All communication, both transmission and reception, occurs through a single pair of wires. There are no handshaking lines.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Multidrop Network More than two devices share an RS-485 signal pair, for both transmission and reception of data. Only one device is permitted to talk at any one time. As with simple bi-directional communication, the board’s RS-485 transceiver is placed in receive mode unless it is the one permitted to transmit. One popular way of managing who is the transmitter is by a “token” passing scheme. Each node is assigned an ID number.
Product Reference Note Some programs that emulate an ASCII terminal do not properly support the basic ASCII command functions shown in Table 2–14. Ampro provides a suitable PC terminal emulator program, TVTERM, on the Common Utilities diskette. The keyboard and screen of the terminal become the system console after system boots. Programs used this way must use ROM BIOS video functions rather than direct screen addressing for their display I/O.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Serial Booting and Serial Programming Serial console functionality has been expanded to incorporate two additional features useful in embedded applications. ! The serial boot facility enables the Little Board/486e CPU to boot from code downloaded through a serial port in a manner similar to booting from a local hard disk or from a network. ! The serial programming facility permits updating FLASH memory devices installed in the bytewide socket over the serial port.
Product Reference Bi-Directional Parallel Port The Little Board/486e CPU incorporates a standard PC bi-directional parallel port at connector J15. This port supports two modes of operation: ! Standard PC/AT printer port (output only) ! PS/2 compatible bi-directional parallel port (SPP) Information about parallel port configuration using SETUP, is provided in this chapter. The lowlevel software interface to the parallel port consists of three addressable registers.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual ROM-BIOS Installation of Parallel Ports LPT1 is normally assigned to the primary parallel port by the BIOS, LPT2 to the secondary parallel port if present, and so on. However, the BIOS scans the standard addresses for parallel ports and assigns LPT designations in the order it finds them. Thus, a secondary parallel port (at address 278h) can be assigned LPT1 if there is no primary port. Note The scan order is 3BCh, 378h, 278h.
Product Reference ;---------------------------------------------------------; Code to change the parallel port direction to input ;---------------------------------------------------------MOV DX,37Ah IN AL,DX OR AL,20h ;set bit 5 OUT DX,AL ; ;---------------------------------------------------------; Code to change the parallel port direction to output ;---------------------------------------------------------MOV DX,37Ah IN AL,DX AND AL,0DFh ;clear bit 5 OUT DX,AL Parallel Port Interrupt The parallel port
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Parallel Port Interrupt Enable Bit 4 in the control register (see Table 2–18) enables the parallel port interrupt. If this bit is high, then a rising edge on the -ACK (IRQ) line produces an interrupt on the interrupt IRQ7 (or IRQ5 if configured as the secondary port). . Table 2–18.
Product Reference Parallel Port Connector (J15) Connection to the parallel port is through connector J15. Table 2–19 details the J15 pinout and signal definitions. Use a flat ribbon cable between J15 and a female DB25 connector. The table describes the connections from the header pins to the DB25 connector. Table 2–20 gives manufacturer’s part numbers for mating connectors for J15. Table 2–19.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Note For maximum reliability, keep the cable between the board and the device it drives to 10 feet or less in length. Register Bit Definitions Table 2–21 defines the register bits shown in the Signal Name or Function column of Table 2–19. Table 2–21. Standard and PS/2 Mode Register Bit Definitions 2–26 Signal Name Full Name Description -ERR Error Reflects the status of the -ERROR input. 0 means an error has occurred.
Product Reference Floppy Disk Interface The onboard floppy disk controller and ROM BIOS support one or two floppy disk drives in any of the standard DOS formats shown in Table 2–22. Table 2–22. Supported Floppy Formats Capacity Drive Size Tracks Data Rate 360K 5-1/4 inch 40 250 kHz 1.2M 5-1/4 inch 80 500 kHz 720K 3-1/2 inch 80 250 kHz 1.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Floppy Interface Configuration The floppy interface is configured using SETUP to set the number and type of floppy drives connected to the system. Refer to the SETUP section later in this chapter for details. If the floppy interface is not used, disable it in SETUP. This frees its I/O addresses (3F0h - 3F7h), DMA2, and IRQ6 for use by other peripherals installed on the PC/104 bus.
Product Reference IDE Hard Disk Interface The Little Board/486e CPU provides an interface for one or two Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) hard disk drives. IDE drives, the most popular and cost-effective type of hard drive currently available, have an internal hard disk controller. There are also many CD-ROM drives designed to use the IDE interface. If you attach a CD-ROM drive to the IDE port, you need a driver (supplied by the CD-ROM drive manufacturer) to access the device.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–25.
Product Reference Table 2–25. IDE Drive Interface Connector (J12) (continued) Pin Signal Name Function In/Out 33 HOST A1 Drive address 1 OUT 34 RSVD Reserved N/C 35 HOST AD0 Drive address 0 OUT 36 HOST AD2 Drive address 2 OUT 37 -HOST CS0 Chip select OUT 38 -HOST CS1 Chip select OUT 39 -HOST SLV/ACT Drive active/drive slave 10K Pull-up 40 GND Ground OUT Table 2–26.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Compact Flash Solid-State Disk The Little Board/486e connector J2 supports a Compact Flash device, a solid-state IDE hard-disk emulator. It acts as a removable hard-disk drive. You can format, read, and write the Compact Flash device much as you would a standard IDE drive. Enabling the Drive The Compact Flash interface emulates an IDE drive to the operating system. To use this feature, enable it using Setup.
Product Reference Flat Panel/CRT Video Controller The Little Board/486e CPU provides an integrated high-performance super VGA video controller that supports both CRT and flat panel displays. Table 2–27 provides a summary of the Video Interface connectors and their specific use and features are described in the following sections. It is possible to disable the on-board video controller by removing jumpers W11 and W12.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–28. CRT Interface Connector (J5) J5 Pin Signal Name DB-15 DB-9 1 Red 1 1 2 Ground 6 6 3 Green 2 2 4 Ground 7 7 5 Blue 3 3 6 Ground 8 8 7 Horizontal Sync. 13 4 8 Ground 10 9 9 Vertical Sync. 14 5 10 +5V Power with Fuse _ _ Table 2–29.
Product Reference Connecting a Flat Panel (J3) Signals for a wide range of flat panel displays, both color and gray scale, appear on connector J3. Although flat panels of a similar type use similar sets of signals from the video controller, they do not share a standardized interface connector pin configuration. The names of panel control signals vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Read the description of each signal carefully to determine how each signal is used for the display you choose.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–30. Flat Panel Video Connector (J3) 2–36 Pin Signal Name Description 2, 34, 37 +5V +5 Volt supply from the Little Board/486e CPU 3 +12V +12 Volt supply from J10 5 ShfClk 7 M M signal for panel AC drive control. Sometimes called ACDCLK or AC Drive. May also be configured to be -BLANK or as Display Enable (DE) for TFT panels. 9 LP Latch Pulse. Sometimes called Load Clock, Line Load, or Input Data Latch, the flat panel equivalent of HSYNC.
Product Reference Table 2–31. J3 Mating Connectors Part Description Mating Connector Ribbon 3M 4325-7600 Discrete Wire MOLEX Housing 55-22-2502 PIN 16-02-0103 Power Sequencing Some LCD panels can be damaged when the Vee bias supply is applied to the LCD substrate without first enabling the control and data lines. This can result in damage to the panel or reduction of its operational life.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual BIOS Support of Non-Standard Panels Ampro supplies flat panel BIOS images for many popular LCD panels. The chosen panel BIOS is selected using SETUP. If an unsupported panel is desired, the standard video BIOS must be modified to support the panel. Ampro can provide a BIOS modification kit to make these changes. Contact an Ampro sales representative or Ampro Technical Support for information about the Little Board/486e Flat Panel BIOS Modification Kit.
Product Reference LCD Bias Supply Option The LCD Bias supply option is a small circuit board that supplies Vee power to an LCD display. The board converts the +5V from the Little Board/486e CPU to the Vee voltage (between 15V – 35V) required by many LCD panels. This voltage is available on flat panel connector J3. LCD displays are sensitive to the sequence order and timing that power supply and control signals are applied to the display during power up and removed during power down cycles.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Note Incorrect Vee polarity or voltage can damage an LCD panel. Set the polarity and voltage on the Vee supply before connecting the LCD panel. Attaching an External Contrast Control Vee controls the contrast of the LCD display. Do not confuse this with a backlight that illuminates the screen using one or more fluorescent tubes. Backlights generally require a high voltage AC supply.
Product Reference Example: Suppose the following Vee values are shown in the panel’s data sheet: Vee max = 24V Vee min = 20V Calculate the required resistor values as follows: Ra = (270 / (24 / 1.5) –1) –12 Ra = 6K ohms Rb = (270 / (20 / 1.5) –1) –12 –6 Rb = 3.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Ethernet Network Interface This section discusses the hardware and software considerations when setting up a network using the Ethernet LAN interface. Additional information on Ethernet standards is available from IEEE Customer Service: IEEE Customer Service 445 Hoes Lane PO Box 1331 Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 USA Phone: (800) 678-IEEE (in the US and Canada) (908) 981-0060 (outside the US and Canada) FAX: (908) 981-9667 www.uncoverco.com/CUSTSR.
Product Reference Installing an Ethernet Boot PROM Most network interface cards provide a means for installing a boot PROM. The boot PROM code enables the node to boot from a network server, much like the BIOS boots from a local hard disk or floppy. Install this device in S0. Boot PROM code varies from one network operating system to another. Boot PROM for the selected network operating system must be compatible with the onboard LAN controller.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Installing a Boot PROM The Little Board/486e CPU can be configured for a boot PROM by installing the boot PROM in byte-wide socket S0. Installing a Boot PROM in Byte-Wide Socket S0 Install a LAN boot PROM in byte-wide socket S0. The boot PROM code is run at boot time as a BIOS extension. To install a LAN boot PROM in byte-wide socket S0, follow these guidelines: 1.
Product Reference many industry suppliers. Standard RJ45 connectors are used for all connections in a twisted-pair cable network. Twisted-pair Ethernet cables must be 100 meters or less between any node and hub or repeater. Using Network Operating Systems (NOS) The most common method of using the Little Board/486e Ethernet LAN interface is by means of a NOS. The NOS can be either part of the computer’s OS; DOS and Windows 9x, or provided separately.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Network OS Drivers Ethernet drivers provided on the Utilities diskette are listed in Table 2–34. The table which driver to use for various NOSs. Driver installation procedures vary from one network operating system to another. No detailed description can be given here. Follow the instructions that come with the network operating system you choose for your system. Table 2–34. Ethernet Drivers Program Name Vendor Function Driver Name Netware 4.
Product Reference Manufacturer’s Ethernet ID Ethernet network adapter and interface manufacturers are assigned a unique manufacturer’s ID by the IEEE Standards Office. A network address consists of 48 bits. The upper 24 bits are the manufacturer’s ID and the lower 24 bits are the board’s unique ID. Developers creating network applications must know whether the manufacturer’s ID for network adapters attached to the network are important or not.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Byte-Wide Socket (S0) The Little Board/486e CPU has a 32-pin onboard byte-wide memory socket designated S0. This socket supports 32-pin DIP JEDEC pin out memory devices, including EPROM, FLASH EPROM, SRAM, and nonvolatile RAM (NOVRAM) devices.
Product Reference Addressing the Byte-wide Socket Use SETUP to specify the size and starting address of the byte-wide socket, and whether the BIOS enables the socket upon system initialization. Table 2–36 lists the possible settings for sizes and address ranges of the byte-wide socket. Note When the byte-wide socket is enabled, the memory address space it uses is unavailable for other devices, even if no memory device is installed in the socket.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Performance Issues Executing programs directly from the byte-wide socket can adversely affect system performance. There are a number of factors that can contribute to the performance impact: ! The byte-wide device is substantially slower than DRAM, as it is an 8-bit device instead of 32bit device. ! The device is accessed from the PC expansion bus, which is much slower than the high-speed processor memory bus.
Product Reference Table 2–37.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Jumpering the Byte-Wide Socket You must jumper the byte-wide socket for the devices you install. Jumper array W2 configures S0 for a particular device type. Table 2–38 shows how to install jumpers for supported memory devices. Table 2–38.
Product Reference Using EPROMs )If you install an EPROM in socket S0, make sure the jumper on W2 is set properly. Some EPROMs draw current through their chip select lines (or other pins) when powered down. Table 2–40 lists the Flash EPROM jumpering for S0. Table 2–40.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Using SRAMs The external battery power is combined with the internal battery using low forward voltage drop Schottky diodes. Table 2–41 lists the SRAM and NOVRAM jumpering for S0. Table 2–41. SRAM and NOVRAM Jumpering for S0 SRAM Typical Devices Pins 128K SRAM - 628128 512K SRAM - 628512 32 Jumper Diagram 1 3 7 9 Non-volatile RAM Non-volatile RAM can be used as a means of dramatically storing and retrieving runtime application data.
Product Reference Utility Connector (J16) 10 functions appear on the 16-pin connector at J16: ! Auxiliary power connections ! Power indicator LED ! PC speaker ! Push-button reset switch ! Standard PC keyboard interface ! External back-up battery for the real-time clock Table 2–42 shows the pinout and signal definitions of the Utility Connector.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–42.
Product Reference PC Speaker The Little Board’s motherboard logic includes a standard AT-compatible speaker port. The speaker logic signal is buffered by a transistor amplifier, and provides about 100 mW on J16-9 to an external 8-ohm speaker. Connect the other side of the speaker to ground, J16-10. The audio output is based on two signals: the output of Timer 2; and the programming of two bits, 0 and 1, at I/O port 61h. Bit 1 of I/O port 61h is one term of a 2-input AND gate.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Battery-Backed Clock An AT-compatible battery-backed real-time clock (with CMOS RAM) is standard on the Little Board/486e CPU. A 3.6-volt Lithium battery connected to the Utility Connector, J16, can power the clock. Battery drain for the clock is less than 1 uA. This battery will support the clock for about 10 years.
Product Reference Watchdog Timer The purpose of a watchdog timer is to restart the system should some mishap occur. Possible problems include: ! A failure to boot properly ! Application software losing control ! Temporary power supply problems including spikes, surges, or interference ! Failure of an interface device ! Unexpected conditions on the bus ! Other hardware or software malfunctions The watchdog timer helps assure proper start-up after any interruption.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Note If you use the MS-DOS operating system, you cannot use the watchdog timer to monitor the boot process. MS-DOS resets the alarm clock in the real-time clock at boot time.
Product Reference To use the NMI I/O Channel Check in a custom Watchdog Timer handler routine, the standard NMI handler would have to be replaced with your custom code. If a customer supplied NMI interrupt service routine is installed, it can test to see if the I/O Channel Check NMI occurred by reading I/O port 61h, bit 6. Bit 6 is true (1) if the NMI occurred. Note Following the occurrence of an I/O Channel Check NMI, the function must be disabled and then re-enabled before the next one can occur.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual AT Expansion Bus The PC/AT expansion bus appears on a pair of header connectors at P1 and P2. P1 is a 64-pin female dual-row header. P2 is a 40-pin female dual-row header. Pins from both headers extend through the board, providing male connections for PC/104-compliant peripherals or other devices.
Product Reference Onboard MiniModule Expansion One or more Ampro MiniModule products or other PC/104 modules can be installed on the Little Board/486e expansion connectors. When installed on P1 and P2, the expansion modules fit within the Little Board/486e’s outline dimensions. Most Ampro MiniModule products have stackthrough connectors compatible with the PC/104 Version 2.1 specification. Several modules can be stacked on the Little Board/486e headers.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Bus Expansion Guidelines Expanding a Little Board/486e CPU can be accomplished by connecting short ribbon cables to the header connectors. There are restrictions when attaching peripherals to the expansion bus with ribbon cables. If cables are too long or improperly terminated, noise and cross talk introduced by the ribbon cables can cause errors.
Product Reference Expansion Bus Connector Pinouts Tables 2–34 through 2–37 show the pinout and signal functions on the PC/104-compliant expansion bus connectors. The expansion bus pin numbers shown in the following tables correspond to the scheme normally used on ISA expansion bus card sockets. Rather than numerical designations (1, 2, 3) they have alphanumeric designations (A1, A2…, B1, B2…, etc.). The Little Board/486e CPU does not generate ±12VDC or -5VDC for the expansion bus.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–46. AT Expansion Bus Connector, A1-A32 (P1) Pin Signal Name Function In/Out Current PU/PD/S * A1 IOCHCK* bus NMI input IN N/A A2 SD7 Data bit 7 I/O 4 mA 4.7K PU A3 SD6 Data bit 6 I/O 4 mA 4.7K PU A4 SD5 Data bit 5 I/O 4 mA 4.7K PU A5 SD4 Data bit 4 I/O 4 mA 4.7K PU A6 SD3 Data bit 3 I/O 4 mA 4.7K PU A7 SD2 Data bit 2 I/O 4 mA 4.7K PU A8 SD1 Data bit 1 I/O 4 mA 4.7K PU A9 SD0 Data bit 0 I/O 4 mA 4.
Product Reference Table 2–47.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 2–48.
Product Reference Table 2–49.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Interrupt and DMA Channel Usage The AT bus provides several interrupt and DMA control signals. When the system is expanded with MiniModule products or plug-in cards that require either interrupt or DMA support, interrupt or DMA channels must be specifically selected. This typically involves setting switches or adding jumpers on the module. In most cases, these are not shared resources.
Product Reference Table 2–51. DMA Channel Assignments Channel Function 0 Available for 8-bit transfers 1 Available for 8-bit transfers (Multimode Parallel port) 2 Floppy controller 3 Available for 8-bit transfers 4 Cascade for channels 0-3 5 Available for 16-bit transfers 6 Available for 16-bit transfers 7 Available for 16-bit transfers Table 2–52 summarizes the available interrupt assignments for all subsystems on the Little Board/486e CPU.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual SETUP Overview This section describes the SETUP function. It describes each option that can be set using SETUP. Additional sections describe important options that can be set for each major functional block of the board. Note The SETUP descriptions in the following section also contain much useful information about each SETUP topic. Review these sections even if you already know how to set the SETUP parameters. This section assumes users are familiar with DOS.
Product Reference Table 2–53.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual SETUP Page 1—Standard (CMOS/EEPROM) Setup The first SETUP page contains the parameters normally saved in CMOS RAM plus some additional parameters unique to the Little Board/486e CPU. The only parameters not auto saved in the EEPROM memory are the real-time clock date and time. If no battery is used or if the battery fails, the date and time will not be accurate. All other parameters are saved in the EEPROM. Figure 2–13 shows what can be configured using SETUP page 1.
Product Reference Date and Time The time shown on the first SETUP screen is continuously updated and reflects the current state of the hardware real-time clock. The new time and date entered is immediately written to the device. Enter the date in the form mm/dd/yyyy. The year requires all 4 digits. Enter the time in 24-hour format, in the form hh:mm:ss. The ROM BIOS maintains the system real-time clock. It is incremented approximately 18.2 times per second by an interrupt from timer/counter 0.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual To configure the system for one or two IDE drives, set the drive parameters with SETUP, as outlined here: ! Drive Types—The configuration memory contains a default list of parameters that specify the physical format of each drive. Each type specifies the total number of cylinders, number of heads, cylinder to begin pre-compensation, landing zone cylinder number, and the number of sectors per cylinder. The drive manufacturer supplies these parameters.
Product Reference Video Specify the initial video mode by selecting one of the following: ! Mono ! Color40 ! Color80 ! EGA/VGA If the video display card is VGA, super VGA, or any other high-resolution standard, specify EGA/VGA regardless of how it is configured to initialize. DRAM Memory The ROM BIOS automatically sets the amount of memory it discovers during Power-On Self-Test (POST) and stores the result when you save the configuration values when exiting SETUP.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual SETUP Page 2—Options/Peripheral Configuration Use SETUP page 2 to enable or disable many of the functions and peripherals provided on the Little Board/486e CPU. Figure 2–14 shows what can be configured on SETUP page 2, and the sections that follow describe each parameter. LB/486e Options/Peripheral Configuration Little Board Extended BIOS...Enabled Advanced Power Mgmt BIOS.....Disabled Serial Port 1................Enabled Serial Port 2................
Product Reference Serial Port Use SETUP to independently enable or disable either of the two onboard serial ports. When SETUP is used to enable or disable a port, the change does not take effect until the system is rebooted. The I/O addresses and interrupt assignments (IRQs) for the serial ports cannot be changed. Table 2–54 lists the I/O addresses and IRQs of each port. These resources are freed for use by other peripherals installed on the PC/104 bus when their respective ports are disabled. Table 2–54.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Floppy Interface Enable Enable or disable the onboard floppy interface. When disabled, the I/O ports assigned to the floppy controller become available, allowing them to be used by other devices installed on the expansion bus. Table 2–56 lists the resources used by the floppy controller. Table 2–56.
Product Reference Video State Video State can be set to Enabled or Inhibited. Inhibited blanks the display until an application program makes a call to the Video Restore State function in the video BIOS through INT10h. This provides a means of controlling what appears on the screen when the system starts up. This option can be used to inhibit the POST test display and everything else that DOS or an application would display, until a call is made to the video BIOS.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Byte-Wide Socket Configuration The byte-wide socket, S0 can be configured for its starting address and the size of the memory block in which it appears to the processor, or it can be disabled. Whether or not the socket should be enabled during the boot process can also be specified. Table 2–58 lists the socket address configuration options that are available. Table 2–58.
Product Reference Flat Panel Display Type There are up to 8 pre-installed flat panel video BIOS configurations available from SETUP, numbered 1 through 8. Select the panel you want by selecting its number. A list of supported panels is provided on the Utilities diskette. Installing a Modified BIOS to Support a New Panel If you wish to use an unsupported panel for your application, you must modify the video BIOS to support the new panel. Ampro provides a video BIOS modification kit to do this.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual SETUP Page 3—Serial Console Configuration The ROM BIOS includes a unique set of features that allow full access to the system at any time over standard RS-232 serial ports. An embedded system can take advantage of these remote access capabilities using the serial console functions in the following ways: ! Serial console—Use Serial 1 or Serial 2 as a console. Use a serial terminal to replace the standard video monitor and keyboard.
Product Reference This section describes the SETUP parameters found on the Extended Serial Console Configuration screen. ! Console Output Device—Select the console output device, either Video, Serial 1, Serial 2, or None. ! Console Input Device—Select the console input device, either the PC Keyboard, Serial 1, Serial 2, or None. ! Serial Console Output Setup—Enter the communication parameters for your console output serial port.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual The SETUP.COM Program The SETUP.COM utility can be used from the command line to access the same SETUP functions as the hot key code, CTRL-ALT-ESC. SETUP.COM also adds additional functionality, such as the ability to load and store configuration settings to a disk file. This same feature is used to store OEM information in the configuration memory EEPROM. SETUP.COM is on the Ampro Common Utilities diskette, included with the Little Board/486e Development Kit.
Product Reference Operation with DOS The Little Board/486e CPU supports IBM’s PC-DOS or Microsoft’s MS-DOS, Version 3.3 or later, or any version of Digital Research’s DR DOS as the disk operating system. Any differences between these similar operating systems are noted in the text where applicable. Caution Sometimes MS-DOS is customized by a manufacturer for a specific system and may not work on the Little Board/486e CPU.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Utility Software Overview The Little Board/486e Development Kit provides a number of software utilities on the Ampro Common Utilities diskette. Some of the programs provided on this diskette are: FLASHWRI—Flash PROM utility for writing program images to Flash devices in byte-wide sockets. SETUP—A utility used to access the ROM BIOS SETUP function from the DOS command line. SERLOAD—A serial loader utility for downloading files from a remote host prior to system boot.
Chapter 3 Technical Specifications Little Board™/486e CPU Specifications The following section provides technical specifications for the Little Board™/486e CPU. CPU/Motherboard ! CPU: 3.3 V 100 MHz or 133 MHz 80486 ! System RAM: Socket for 168-pin DIMM, FPM or EDO only Supports up to 64M bytes total RAM ! 15 interrupt channels (8237-equivalent) ! 7 DMA channels (8259-equivalent) ! 3 programmable counter/timers (8253-equivalent) ! Standard PC/AT keyboard port ! Standard PC speaker port with .
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Onboard Peripherals This section describes standard peripherals found on every Little Board/486e CPU. ! Four buffered serial ports with full handshaking: Implemented with 16550-equivalent controllers with built-in 16-byte FIFO buffers Onboard generation of ±9 Volts for RS-232C signal levels Channel two supports either RS-232C (direct connection) or RS-485 Adapter Logged as COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4 by DOS.
Technical Specifications Table 3–1. Supported CRT Video Modes—Standard VGA Mode Display Mode Colors Text Font Pixels Clock (MHz) Horiz (KHz) Vert (Hz) 0+, 1+ Text 16 40x25 40x25 40x25 9x16 8x14 8x8 360x400 320x350 320x200 28.322 25.175 25.175 31.5 70 2+, 3+ Text 16 80x25 80x25 80x25 9x16 8x14 8x8 720x400 640x350 640x200 28.322 25.175 25.175 31.5 70 4 Graphics 4 40x25 8x8 320x200 25.175 31.5 70 5 Graphics 4 40x25 8x8 320x200 25.175 31.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Table 3–2. Supported CRT Video Modes—Extended Resolution Mode Display Mode Colors VESA Mode Font 20 Pack Pixel 16 120 8x16 22 Pack Pixel 16 122 24 Pack Pixel 16 24I Pack Pixel 28 Pixels Clock (MHz) Horiz (KHz) Vert (Hz) Mem. 640x480 25.175 31.5 36 31.5 37.5 43.3 60 75 85 256K 256K 256K 8x16 800x600 36 40 49.5 56025 35.1 37.9 46.9 53.7 56 60 75 85 256K 256K 256K 256K 124 8x16 1024x768 65 78.75 94.5 48.5 60 68.
Technical Specifications Table 3–2. Supported CRT Video Modes—Extended Resolution (cont.) Mode Display Mode Colors VESA Mode Font Pixels Clock (MHz) Horiz (KHz) Vert (Hz) Mem. 43 Pack Pixel 64K 114 8x16 800x600 36 40 49.5 56.25 35.1 37.9 46.9 53.7 56 60 75 85 1024K 1024K 1024K 1024K 44 Pack Pixel 32K 116 8x16 1024 x 768 44.9 65 35.5 48.4 43(I) 60 1536K 1536K 45 Pack Pixel 64K 117 8x16 1024 x 768 44.9 65 35.5 48.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual ! Ethernet LAN Interface: Complies with IEEE 802.
Technical Specifications Mechanical and Environmental Specifications ! Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.75 x 1.2 inches (146 x 203 x 30 mm.). Refer to Figure 3–1 for mounting dimensions. ! Provision for system expansion with one or more Ampro MiniModule products or other PC/104 expansion modules. ! Power requirements (typical, with 16M byte DRAM): ! Operating environment: 100 MHz 80486DX4 CPU: 1.
5.250 4.800 J16 Utility/Keyboard J12 IDE Hard Disk 5.800 4.150 3.950 3.000 3.100 2.400 2.500 1.550 .975 1.000 .400 .300 Little Board™/486e Technical Manual 7.600 7.500 7.500 7.100 J10 Power W6 RS-485 Termination (No Enable) W5 RS-232/RS-485 (RS-232) J14 Floppy 6.900 6.800 6.700 J15 Parallel Port 6.675 6.350 J11 Serial 1 & 2 J7 Ethernet J13 Serial 3 & 4 J6 RS-485 W3 Compact Flash Master/Slave 6.
Technical Specifications 3–9
Index # techsupport@ampro.
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual expansion bus, 5, 2-62 expansion bus pinouts, 2-65 expansion bus, ribbon cables, 2-64 expansion cards, 2-63 extended BIOS, 2-78 extended memory, 2-10 external battery, 2-57 F filtering, PC bus, 2-64 Flash EPROM programming, 2-53 flat panel display type, 2-83 flat panel BIOS support, 2-38 flat panel display, 2-35 flat panel/CRT video controller, 2-33 floppy drives, 2-27, 2-75 floppy interface, 3, 2-27, 2-80 configuration, 2-28 connector, 2-28 FTP, Ampro, vii G general de
Index phone numbers, Ampro, vii port, serial, 2-11 ports, 2-87 POST, SETUP, 2-77 power fail write protect, 2-8 power LED, 2-57 power requirements, 2-7 power sequencing, 2-37 power supplies, switching, 2-7 power, DC, 2-6 powerfail circuit, 2-8 printer port, 2-21 push button reset, 2-57 Q QNX Software Systems, 2-43 R real-time clock, 2-7, 2-58, 2-75 register bit definitions, 2-26 repeater, 2-42 reset, push button, 2-57 RJ11 modular connector, 2-16 RJ45, 2-44 ROM BIOS, 2-87 ROM BIOS, video functions, 2-19 RO
Little Board™/486e Technical Manual Index–4
