User`s manual

J34: COM2 Port Bracket Connector
The COM2 Port Bracket Connector lets you add an additional serial port, to which you can
connect peripherals such as serial modems and pointing devices.
The COM2 port is configured in the CMOS Setup Utility, see Chapter 4.
J11, J12: Serial ATA Drive Connectors
There are two Serial ATA connectors on the motherboard. Each connector supports one drive,
which connects to the motherboard with a Serial ATA cable. These two Serial ATA connectors
also support RAID 0 and RAID 1. The motherboard comes with two Serial ATA cables and one
power core for user’s convenience.
The BC875PLG is manufactured using the Intel® 875P chipset, which features the Intel®
82801EB I/O Controller Hub (ICH5R). The I/O Controller Hub 5 supports Serial ATA transfer
speeds of 150MBps (Megabytes per second).
The ICH5-R’s Serial ATA controller offers two independent Serial ATA ports with a theoretical
maximum transfer rate of 150 MB/s per port. One device can be installed on each port for a
maximum of two Serial ATA devices. A point-to-point interface is used for host to device
connections, unlike Parallel IDE which supports a master/slave configuration and two devices per
channel. For compatibility, the underlying Serial ATA functionality is transparent to the operating
system. The Serial ATA controller can operate in both legacy and native modes. In legacy mode,
standard IDE I/O and IRQ resources are assigned (IRQ 14 and 15). In Native mode, standard PCI
resource steering is used. Native mode is the preferred mode for configurations using the
Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating systems.
NOTE1: Many Serial ATA drives use new low-voltage power connectors and require adaptors or power supplies equipped
with low-voltage power connectors. For more information, see: http://www.serialata.org/
NOTE2: Currently RAID 1 is not supported, but will be ready after Q3, 2003
User’s Manual 2 - 9
Serial ATA Drive Connectors