Specifications

2 - 1

CHAPTER 2

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

2.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes what is required to integrate the Little Board/286 with a wide variety of

external devices, including keyboards, printers, modems, floppy and hard disk drives, and

monitors. Information is provided regarding the board's connector signals and pinouts, external

device requirements, interconnection cable wiring, and board configuration.

Also covered in this chapter are the configuration and initialization requirements of standard and

optional onboard devices. These include both the standard items such as the DRAM memory,

battery-backed real time clock, and speed control functions, and also several optional additions

such as the 80287 math coprocessor, EPROM and NOVRAM "Solid State Disk drives", and a

variety of onboard expansion modules including the Ampro MiniModule video controllers.

It is important to note, however, that many of the board's functions are software rather than

hardware controlled. Therefore, many of the features and functions described in this manual

assume the presence of the board's standard ROM-BIOS for their operation. Refer to Chapter 3 for

typical software configuration information, and to Chapter 4 for technical details regarding the

board's hardware and software functions.

2.1.1 Interface Connectors

Figure 2-1 shows the location of the board's interface connectors (J1-J11) and configuration jumper

locations. Table 2-1 summarizes the use of each of the board's connectors. Connector pinouts

and signal definitions are provided in the sections of this chapter that cover each connector

interface. Typical interface cable construction data is also included in the description of each

connector interface.

Table 2-1. Summary of Connector Usage

Connector Function Size

J1 Power Input 4-pin

J2 Secondary Serial 10-pin

J3 Primary Serial 10-pin

J4 (*) Utility 12-pin

J5 (*) Keyboard 6-pin

J6 Printer 26-pin

J7 SCSI 50-pin

J8 Floppy 34-pin

J9 AT Bus 64-pin

J10 AT Bus 40-pin

J11 Math Option 40-pin

(*) J4 and J5 are combined on a

single 18-pin array