307013-003 Datasheet, PDF (46/848 Pages) Intel Corporation – Intel I/O Controller Hub 7

Introduction
Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller
The ICH7 contains an Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) host controller that
supports USB high-speed signaling. High-speed USB 2.0 allows data transfers up to
480 Mb/s which is 40 times faster than full-speed USB. The ICH7 also contains four
Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI) controllers that support USB full-speed and
low-speed signaling.
The ICH7 supports eight USB 2.0 ports. All eight ports are high-speed, full-speed, and
low-speed capable. ICH7’s port-routing logic determines whether a USB port is
controlled by one of the UHCI controllers or by the EHCI controller. See Section 5.19
and Section 5.20 for details.
LAN Controller (Desktop and Mobile Only)
The ICH7’s integrated LAN controller includes a 32-bit PCI controller that provides
enhanced scatter-gather bus mastering capabilities and enables the LAN controller to
perform high speed data transfers over the PCI bus. Its bus master capabilities enable
the component to process high-level commands and perform multiple operations; this
lowers processor utilization by off-loading communication tasks from the processor.
Two large transmit and receive FIFOs of 3 KB each help prevent data underruns and
overruns while waiting for bus accesses. This enables the integrated LAN controller to
transmit data with minimum interframe spacing (IFS).
The LAN controller can operate in either full duplex or half duplex mode. In full duplex
mode the LAN controller adheres with the IEEE 802.3x Flow Control Specification. Half
duplex performance is enhanced by a proprietary collision reduction mechanism. See
Section 5.3 for details.
Alert Standard Format (ASF) Management Controller (Desktop and
Mobile Only)
ICH7 integrates an Alert Standard Format controller in addition to the integrated LAN
controller, allowing interface system-monitoring devices to communicate through the
integrated LAN controller to the network. This makes remote manageability and system
hardware monitoring possible using ASF.
The ASF controller can collect and send various information from system components
such as the processor, chipset, BIOS and sensors on the motherboard to a remote
server running a management console. The controller can also be programmed to
accept commands back from the management console and execute those commands
on the local system.
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Intel ^® ICH7 Family Datasheet