82801FB Datasheet, PDF (50/786 Pages) Intel Corporation – Intel I/O Controller Hub 6 (ICH6) Family

Introduction
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
ICH6 integrates an Alert Stand 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 means remote manageability and system hardware monitoring are
made 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.
RTC
The ICH6 contains a Motorola MC146818A-compatible real-time clock 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.
GPIO
Various general purpose inputs and outputs are provided for custom system design. The number of
inputs and outputs varies depending on ICH6 configuration.
Enhanced Power Management
The ICH6’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 ICH6
contains full support for the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Specification,
Revision 2.0.
Manageability
The ICH6 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.
50
Intel^® I/O Controller Hub 6 (ICH6) Family Datasheet