Dell PowerEdge T310 - Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controllers; Real-Time Clock (RTC); General Purpose Inputs and Outputs (GPIO); Enhanced Power Management

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PowerEdge T310 Technical Guide 42
8.12 Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controllers
The Intel 3420 contains up to two Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) host controllers that
support USB high-speed signaling. High-speed USB 2.0 allows data transfers up to 480 Mb/s. The PCH
also contains two Rate Matching Hubs (RMH) that support USB full-speed and low-speed signaling.
The Intel 3420 supports up to fourteen USB 2.0 ports. All fourteen ports are high-speed, full-speed, and
low-speed capable.
8.13 Real-Time Clock (RTC)
The Intel 3420 contains a real-time clock (RTC) with 256 bytes of battery-backed RAM. The real-time
clock performs two key functions: keeping track of the time of day and storing system data, even when
the system is powered down. The RTC operates on a 32.768 KHz crystal and a 3 V battery.
The RTC also supports two lockable memory ranges. By setting bits in the configuration space, two 8-
byte ranges can be locked to read and write accesses. This prevents unauthorized reading of
passwords or other system security information. The RTC also supports a date alarm that allows for
scheduling a wake-up event up to 30 days in advance, rather than just 24-hours in advance.
8.14 General Purpose Inputs and Outputs (GPIO)
Various general purpose inputs and outputs (GPIO) are provided for custom system design. The
number of inputs and outputs varies depending on Intel 3420 configuration.
8.15 Enhanced Power Management
The Intel 3420’s power management functions include enhanced clock control and various low-power
(suspend) states (e.g., Suspend-to-RAM and Suspend-to-Disk). A hardware-based thermal
management circuit permits software-independent entrance to low-power states. The Intel 3420
contains full support for the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Specification, Revision
3.0a.
8.16 Chipset Management
In addition to Intel Active Management Technology, the Intel 3420 integrates several functions
designed to manage the system and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the system. These
system management functions are designed to report errors, diagnose the system, and recover from
system lockups without the aid of an external microcontroller.
• TCO Timer. The Intel 3420’s integrated programmable TCO timer is used to detect system
locks. The first expiration of the timer generates an SMI# that the system can use to recover
from a software lock. The second expiration of the timer causes a system reset to recover from
a hardware lock.
• Processor Present Indicator. The Intel 3420 looks for the processor to fetch the first
instruction after reset. If the processor does not fetch the first instruction, the Intel 3420 will
reboot the system.
• ECC Error Reporting. When detecting an ECC error, the host controller has the ability to send
one of several messages to the Intel 3420. The host controller can instruct the Intel 3420 to
generate an SMI#, NMI, SERR#, or TCO interrupt.
• Function Disable. The Intel 3420 provides the ability to disable the following integrated
functions: LAN, USB, LPC, Intel HD Audio, SATA, PCI Express or SMBus. Once disabled, these
functions no longer decode I/O, memory, or PCI configuration space. Also, no interrupts or
power management events are generated from the disabled functions.