System Board
Input/output Controller Hub 2 (82801BA)
Chapter 2
52
The integrated microprocessor includes the following:
• Synopsys cell based on Dallas “8052” equivalent
• 2KB boot ROM
• 256 bytes of data RAM
• I2C cell
• Analog-to-Digital (ADC) with five entries
• Additional glue logic for interrupt control, fan regulation, and a status panel control
MaxiLife downloads its code in 96 milliseconds from an I2C serial EEPROM. The total
firmware (MaxiLife 8051-code, running in RAM) size is 14KB. As it exceeds the 2KB
program RAM space, a paging mechanism swaps code as necessary, based on a 512-byte
buffer. The first 2KB pages of firmware code is crucial because it controls the initial
power on/reset to boot the system. This initial page is checked with a null-checksum test
and the presence of MaxiLife markers (located just below the 2KB limit).
MaxiLife is not accessible in I/O space or memory space of the system platform, but only
through the SMBus (which is a subset of the I2C bus), via the ICH2. Its I2C cell may
operate either in slave or master mode, switched by firmware, or automatically in the
event of Arbitration loss.
As a monitoring chip, MaxiLife reports critical errors at start-up, and is therefore
powered by Vstandby (3.3V) power. For MaxiLife to work, the workstation must be
connected to a grounded outlet. This enables the workstation’s hardware-monitoring
chip to be active, even if the system has been powered off.
Test Sequence And Error Messages
For detailed information about the different test sequences and error messages, see
“MaxiLife Test Sequence And Error Messages” on page 78.
