chapter

I NTRODUCTION
About This Guide
This guide provides technical information on the Compaq Armada 6500 Family of
Personal Computers.

Additional Information Sources

Additional information on the products covered in this guide is available from
manufacturers data sheets, application notes, and published industry standards. Please
refer to the sources listed below for additional information.

Publications
For more information on components used in products covered in this guide, refer to
the following publications:

Compaq Computer Corp. and others, Serialized IRQ on the PCI Way, Version 5.4.
Compaq Computer Corp., Compaq BIOS Technical Reference Guide, PN
074A/0693, Third Edition, Copy Date: June 1995.
IEEE, IEEE 1284 Parallel Port Specification.
Intel Corp., Mobile Pentium II Processor Data Sheets.
Intel Corp., Mobile Pentium Processor with MMX Technology Data Sheets, Copy
Date: January 1997, Order No. 243292-001.
Intel Corp., Pentium Family Users Manual, Document No. 241563-003.
Intel Corp., Pentium Processor Specification Update, Copy Date: May 17, 1995.
Intel Corporation, Pentium Pro Family Developers Manual, Intel Corporation,
1996.
2
Phillips
Semiconductor, I C Peripherals for Microcontrollers Data Boo K,
2
I C Protocol Reference.
S3 Inc., S3 Virge\MX Data Boo K, Copy Date: July 1996, Document No.
DB022-A.
SMC Corporation, Infrared Communications Controller Specification, revision 1.30,
November 1, 1995.
SMC Corporation, SMC37C957FR Data Sheet.

Introduction 1-1

Online Information
The following web sites may furnish additional information on products covered in this
guide:

www.compaq.com/support/techpubs/
www.fapo.com/ieee1284.htm
www.modems.com/general/mcglossary.html
www.pc-card.org
www.picmg.com
www.s3.com
www.smc.com
www.ti.com

Notational Conventions
Values
I/O addresses and other values are in hexadecimal notation when shown with the letter
"h" after them. Memory addresses are in hexadecimal notation when expressed as
SSSS:OOOO (SSSS is a 16-bit segment and OOOO is a 16-bit offset). Other references
are in binary notation when expressed as ones and zeroes with a trailing letter "b" after
the value. All other numbers are in decimal notation.

Ranges
Ranges or limits for a parameter are shown as a pair of values separated by two dots.
For example, 4..0 includes numbers 4, 0 and every number in between (3, 2, and 1).

Signal Labels
Signal values are labeled A0, A1, A15, etc. Signal names are in uppercase letters.
Signals that are negative true, or active low are indicated in the text by an
underscore ( _ ) suffix.

Register Notation and Usage

The standard Intel naming conventions are used for the Pentium registers. EAX, EBX,
ECX, EDX, EBP, ESP, ESI, and EDI are the names of the general registers used as
double word-length registers (32-bit). AH, BH, CH, and DH are the names for the
general registers used as high byte-length registers (8-bit). AL, BL, CL, and DL are the
names for the general registers used as low byte-length registers (8-bit). SI, DI, and BP
denote the source index, destination index, and base pointer registers.
CS, SS, DS, ES, FS, and GS denote the four segment registers: code segment, stack
segment, and four data segments respectively. CS is used with the EIP (instruction
pointer) register, and SS is used with the SP (stac K pointer) register. EFLAGS is the
32-bit Flag register used to return the status of some operations. Status is given as the
state of one of the flags within the register: CF for Carry Flag, IF for Interrupt Flag, etc.

1-2 Introduction