Chapter 5
Functional Overview
©
National Instruments Corporation
5-3
maximum of 192 MB of main memory although as DRAM technology
improves, the maximum amount of RAM supported may increase. The
440BX also connects to SVGA through the AGP port. The PCI bus is then
responsible for connecting the rest of the system.
AGP Graphics
The VXIpc 870 Series uses a S3 VirgeMX AGP-based graphics controller
to connect to SVGA. The AGP graphics controller is coupled to 2 MB of
high-speed 64-bit SGRAM. Using the AGP port for graphics delivers a
higher-speed connection between the CPU and graphics controller,
off-loading traffic from the PCI bus. A few of the resolutions you can use
include:
•
640
×
460 16M colors
•
800
×
600 16M colors
•
1024
×
768 64K colors
•
1280
×
1024 256 colors
•
1600
×
1200 256 colors
10/100 Ethernet and SCSI-3
The Ethernet and SCSI on the VXIpc 870 Series use a Symbios 53C885
dual-function PCI device to connect to 10/100Base Ethernet and Ultra
Wide SCSI-3. The Ethernet function has auto negotiation to connect to
10BaseT and 100BaseTX automatically at 10 Mbits/s and 100 Mbits/s.
The Ultra Wide SCSI-3 function is compatible with SCSI-1, SCSI-2, and
SCSI-3. It supports 16-bit Ultra Wide SCSI transfers up to 40 Mbytes/s and
8-bit Ultra SCSI synchronous transfers at 20 Mbytes/s.
PC CARD Expansion
You can add third-party peripheral cards, such as additional serial ports,
through one of the two PC CARD slots on the front panel. The VXIpc 870
Series can accommodate one Type I/II/III PC CARD and one Type I/II PC
CARD simultaneously. The VXIpc 870 Series uses the Cirrus 6730
PCI-PC CARD bridge.
