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4 Summary of the HP/Phoenix BIOS
Power Saving and Ergonometry
Little Ben
Little Ben is an HP application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), designed
to be a companion to the Super I/O chip, that is connected between the
chip-set and the processor. It contains the following:
• BIOS timer
❒
hardware wired 50 ms long 880 Hz beep module.
❒
automatic blinker that feeds the LEDs module with a 1 Hz oscillator
signal.
• security protection (access, flash and anti-virus protection)
❒
For 128, 256 or 512 KB Flash EEPROMs.
❒
For the Super I/O space: the Serial EEPROM, serial ports, parallel port
and mass storage drives (disable write on Flexible Disk Drive, disable
boot on any drive, disable use of any embedded drive)
• hard and soft control for the power supply (available with Windows NT
and Windows 95, but not with OS/2)
• Advanced power management (APM) version 1.2 (available with Win-
dows 95 and OS/2, but not with Windows NT)
• glue logic (such as programmable chip selects)
The computer can be turned on by typing the space-bar on the keyboard, or
when it receives an external signal from a network board. The power
consumption has been kept as low as possible. When VccState and
PowerGood pins are both low, all output pins are in tri-state mode, except
for RemoteOnBen which continues to be driven. This allows the computer
to be powered from the standby power supply, and to be restarted even
after a power loss has occurred.
When the user requests a ShutDown from the operating system, the
environment is first cleared. Any request to turn off the computer, from the
control panel, or from the operating system, can only be granted if the
computer is not locked by Little Ben’s lock bit (otherwise the power remains
on, a red light is illuminated, and the buzzer is sounded).
The SMI_OFF signal is asserted if the Hard Soft Power Down mode (HSPD)
is enabled when Little Ben is instructed to turn off the computer (via the
status panel or soft power down). The BIOS first performs some RPO
initialization, and then proceeds to power down the computer. If the watch-
