System Overview 1-1
Chapter 1
System Overview
T
he Dell
®
PowerEdge
®
2100/180 and 2100/200 systems, covered in this man-
ual are high-speed, upgradable, server systems, which use the Intel
®
Pentium
®
Pro family of microprocessors. PowerEdge 2100 systems incorporate the high-
performance peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus as well as the
extended industry-standard architecture (EISA) expansion bus. These buses are
built into the system board, which also integrates a Pentium Pro microprocessor and all
other elements of the basic computer system.
The microprocessor module is installed in a zero insertion force (ZIF) socket on
the system board. This allows upgrading of the system board to a faster, more
powerful microprocessor when one becomes available. Contact Dell for infor-
mation about Dell-supported microprocessor upgrades.
The Pentium Pro microprocessor contains a built-in clock multiplier circuit,
which increases the internal operating frequency to a multiple of the system
clock frequency. The microprocessors for each of these systems and their oper-
ating frequencies are as follows:
•
Dell PowerEdge 2100/180 system — 180 MHz derived from a system clock
frequency of 60 MHz
•
Dell PowerEdge 2100/200 system — 200 MHz derived from a system clock
frequency of 66 MHz