Digital Semiconductor 21164 Alpha Microprocessor Motherboard User's Manual

This document is the User's Manual for the Digital Semiconductor 21164 Alpha Microprocessor Motherboard (EB164), published in March 1996.

The EB164 is a computing module designed around the 21164 Alpha microprocessor (supporting 266, 300, or 333 MHz speeds) and the Digital Semiconductor 21171 core logic chipset.

Key features and capabilities include:

• Memory: Supports 32MB to 512MB of DRAM via eight SIMM sockets, and an external L3 backup cache (Bcache) configurable from 2MB to 8MB.
• I/O Interfaces: Provides a main PCI bus (with three dedicated slots and one shared PCI/ISA slot) and an ISA bus (with two dedicated slots).
• Onboard Peripherals: Includes interfaces for IDE devices, diskette drives, parallel and serial ports, keyboard, mouse, and a time-of-year (TOY) clock.
• Firmware: Features a 1MB flash ROM containing a debug monitor and Windows NT ARC firmware, with boot options configurable via jumpers.

The manual is intended for users to install, configure, and operate the EB164. It provides details on hardware requirements, assembly procedures (such as installing the CPU, heat sink, and memory), and software configuration, including how to switch between different firmware images. It also describes the functional operation of the board's components, power distribution, and physical specifications (standard full-size PC AT board).