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If you move the bitmap, and cannot find, you can click AUTO to automatically
return to the initial state, as shown in figure 6-30.

Figure 6-30 the position map of AUTO key

Chapter 7
The Introduction of EC and
BIOS

EC (Embedded Controller) is a 16-bit single chip microcomputer. Which is

featured in laptop, it is because of the use of EC, reflecting an important
difference between laptop and desktop.
In desktop, the keyboard and the mouse are independent of the system host is
generally connected with the host system by PS/2 or USB interface. But in the
laptop, in order to achieve the purpose of portability, it's necessary to use the
built-in keyboard (matrix decoding keyboard) and the built-in mouse (such as
the touchpad, TrackPoint are built-in mouse device).So the laptop needs a

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special keyboard controller. The special EC of the laptop is equipped with this
feature.
Moreover, a most important problem in design of notebook is to make the
system more power, increase the battery life, it must have good heat dispersion
performance. And try to minimize the system noise. According to the
temperature to control the stalling of CPU fan, laptop power management, such
as laptop computer into standby or shutdown, the electric power dispatching of
the external power supply system, power detection of intelligent battery,
charging and discharging task, as well as some practical shortcut buttons. These
important functions are accomplished by EC.
In fact EC of the laptop is an extension of the traditional KBC (Keyboard
Controller), equipped with two part function of KBC and embedded control, so
EC is also called as KBC. EC is widely used in the design of laptop with
intelligent power-saving function. It undertakes task of laptop built-in keyboard
touchpad, laptop battery intelligent charging and discharging management and
temperature monitoring and others.EC plays an important role in design of
portable, intelligent personalized of the laptop.
EC interior has a certain capacity of Flash to store the EC code. The position of
EC in the system is not next to the North and South Bridge, in the process of
open system.EC control the timing sequence of most of important signal. In
laptop, no matter in the boot or shutdown state, EC is always open, unless the
battery and adapter completely removed.
In the shutdown state.EC has kept running, and waiting for the user's boot
information. And after the boot, EC continue to control the keyboard controller
charging indicator light and fan and other device, and even control the system
standby, sleep and other state.
BIOS is the abbreviation of "Basic Input Output System" in English. And the
Chinese name is "basic input/output system" after literal translation. In fact, it is a
group of program curing to a ROM chip on the computer motherboard, holds the
most important basic input/output program, the system settings information,
self-check program after booting and the system self-triggered program of the
computer. Its main function is to provide the lowest level and the most direct
hardware setup and control for the computer.
It should be noted that although the BIOS is referred to the program curing in
the ROM, but in maintenance, we usually called the ROM chip curing the
program as BIOS.
Figure 7-1 is the physical map of EC and BlOS. A large square chip is EC. A
small rectangle chip is BIOS.

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Figure 7-1: The physical map of EC and BIOS

7.1: The Working Conditions and Functions of

EC
l. The basic working condition of EC
(l)Standby power supply: the name of EC standby power supply is usually
VCCCK AVCCx VCCA, etc., a small number of EC standby power supply is
VBAT.

(2)Standby lock: it's usually an external 32.768 kHz crystal before, now most is
free of crystals.

(3)Standby reset the most beginning of the EC reset signal, which name is
usually ECRST WRST#, VCC_POR# etc. The reset of SMSC H8S is RES*.

(4)Program: EC need to get the corresponding program, configure the GP1O pin,
then to Work. The program may be stored in the EC. Also may be stored in the
ROM under EC.

2. The bus communicated EC and the South Bridge

EC connects with the South Bridge by LPC (Low Pin Count) bus.

VCC3: the power supply of LPC bus, 3.3V.

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LPCCLK: LPC CLOCK provides 33MHz frequency for LPC, about 1.6V.

LRESET#: LPC reset signal, 3.3V.

LPC_AD [0:3]: address data complex line. These four signals are used to
transmit the address and data of LPC bus.

LPC_FRAME#: the cycle frame of LPC, when this signal is active, indicates
the start or end of a cycle of LPC.

3. EC controls LCD backlight

LID_SW#: lid-close switch. There are two functions of LID_SW#: in shutdown
state, this signal is used for EC to determine whether it can turn on; pull down
this signal after starting up, which can turn off the backlight. Commonly, now is
using the Hall component (magnetic sensor, Hall Effect) to control this signal.
LCD_BACKOFF: backlight control

LCD_BL_PWM: brightness control.

4. EC manages the battery charging

(1) Pre-charge
If the battery voltage is less than 0.9V, it is determined that the battery has been
damaged, will not charge the battery, because charging the damaged battery
may cause safety problems, such as the explosion or burning.

When the battery voltage is lower than the discharge end voltage(3V) and
greater than 0.9V,with 1/10 current of the constant current charging current to
charge with small current, and the time is short, generally for a few minutes. If
you use a large current to charge the battery with full discharge, it will damage
the battery.

(2) Constant current charging

When the battery voltage is greater than a certain threshold, it will be the
constant current charging, and the feature is constant current Most of the energy
of the battery (80%) is stored at this stage for a long time. The charge current is
generally controlled at an appropriate value, if the value is too large, which will
affect the charging efficiency, and the capacity will be reduced after full.

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(3) Constant voltage charging

When the battery voltage reaches the end voltage of the charging, the battery is
charged with constant voltage, and the feature is that the battery voltage is kept
constant. The charging current is gradually smaller. When the current is less
than 1/10 of constant current charging current, charging end, the battery
capacity will be fully replenished.

(4) Trickle charge

When the charging current is less than 1/10 of the value of constant current
charging, the charging current is close to 0, which is the trickle charge. And the
feature is the battery voltage constant. The purpose is to supplement the self-
discharge of the battery; the self-discharge rate off the lithium battery is usually
5%~10% per month.

5. How to judge whether EC comes with the program

EC needs the program (EC CODE) configuration to complete its various work.
The program may be stored in its internal ROM, also may be stored in the
motherboard BIOS. If the EC comes with the program, when doing
maintenance, you must find the same motherboard to disassemble. If EC not
comes with the program, you can find the same type of chip to replace. How to
judge whether EC comes with the program?

First, observe the appearance, EC with stickers > marked on the surface is
usually bring their own procedures.EC in the figure 7-1 not comes with the
program, and EC in the figure 7-2 comes with the program.

Figure 7-2: EC comes with the program

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Second, observe the architecture, in machines can be repaired on the current

market, there are four kinds of connection ways for EC and BIOS, as shown in
figure 7-3.

Figure 7-3: The relational graph of EC and BIOS

Firstly, BIOS connects to EC through X-BUS and SPI bus, and then EC
connects to the South Bridge through LPC, in general, in this case, EC code is
placed in the BIOS, that is share a chip with BIOS.
Secondly, BIOS connects to the South Bridge through SPI bus, there is not
ROM under EC, it uses its own internal ROM. Common in ThinkPad and Apple,
some models of the latest Lenovo also use this way.
Thirdly, the main BIOS connects to the South Bridge through SPI bus, hang a
SPI ROM chip under EC for storing EC CODE, such EC is not comes with the
program.
Fourthly, EC and the South Bridge connect BIOS through SPI bus, such EC is
not comes with program.

7.2: The Function and Working Conditions of

BIOS
BIOS is the program to provide the lowest level and the most direct hardware
control in the computer system. It controls the input device and output device of
the computer system, and is a hub connected the software program and
hardware device. For the PC, B1OS includes the controlling keyboard, display
screen, disk drive, serial communication device and some other functions of the
code. The computer technology develops into today, there are all kinds of new
technologies, many of the techniques of software part is to use BIOS to manage

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and accomplish. For example, PnP technology (Plug and Play) is accomplished
by adding PnP module in the BIOS.

Again, the hot swap technology also transmit the hot swap information to the
configuration management program of BIOS by the system BIOS, and
reconfigured(such as interruption, DMA channel and other allocation) by the
program, In fact, the hot swap technology is also PnP technology.

In addition to the motherboard, on the other device, such as network card,

graphics card, MODEM, digital camera, hard disk and so on, are also have the
so-called BIOS, some SCSI cards and some interface cards with special
function also have its own BIOS. For example, BIOS on the graphics card is
used to complete the communication between the graphics card and the
motherboard. The start and using of the hard disk also needs HDD BIOS to
complete.

In the process of the boot, the mainboard BIOS will call and execute these
additional BIOS program complete the initialization of this hardware. So
theoretically speaking, each kind of hardware can have its own BIOS. But too
many BIOS, it will not only increase the cost, and will lead to compatibility
problems, therefore, in general, integrated the standardized device in the
motherboard, for those unique specification of manufacturers, appears with the
form of additional BIOS. These BIOS on the external and the motherboard
BIOS using Flash ROM as BIOS ROM chip, also easy to upgrade, to modify its
defects and enhance its compatibility.

l. The function of BIOS

(l) POST power on self-test: after the computer power-on, POST (Power On
Self-Test) program check each device in the system. Usually complete POST
includes to test CPU, 640KB basic memory, more than 1MB of extended
memory, ROM, CMOS, memory, serial and parallel graphics card soft and hard
disk and keyboard, once found the problem during self-test, the system will give
message or whistle warning,

(2) BIOS system start the bootstrap program: after the system finishing POST
self-test, ROM BIOS according to the boot sequence stored in the system
CMOS settings to search the soft and hard disk drives and CD-ROM, network
server and others for booting drive effectively, read the operating system boot

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record, then give the system control power to the boot record, and completed
the sequence boot of the system by the boot record.

(3) Interrupt service routine: responsible for the allocation of the motherboard
hardware interrupt number assigned.

(4) Program settings: refers to enter the CMOS settings after booting.

2. BIOS capacity identification

For example, the model of SST 39VF040, three digits with underlined are
different, representing different capacity:

001/010/100: 1M=128KB
002/020/200: 2Mb=256KB
004/040/400: 4Mb=512KB
008/080/800: 8M=1MB
160: 16Mb=2MB 320:
32Mb=4MB 640:
64Mb=8MB

Note: 8b (bit) =1B (byte)

3. The package type of BIOS

There are many kinds of BIOS package, the specific as follows.

(1) TSOP48
BIOS with TSOP48 package are under EC, through X-BUS, the material object
shown in figure 7-4.

Figure 7-4: BIOS with TSOP48 package

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The definition of BIOS pins is shown in figure 7-5.

AO~A18: the address line DO~D15: the data line CE#: Chip select
VCC: Power Supply 3.3V OE#: output enable WE#: write enable

RESET#: reset VSS: ground connection

Figure 7-5: The definition of BIOS pins with TSOP48 package

(2) TSOP40
BIOS with TSOP40 package are generally X-BLJS bus, the material object
shown in figure 7-6, and the definition of pin shown in figure 7-7.

Figure 7-6 the material object of BIOS with TSOP40 package

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Figure 7-7 the definition of X-BUS BIOS pin with TSOP40

(3) TSOP32
BIOS with TSOP32 are generally X-BUS bus, pin function is similar to
TSOP40, the definition of pin shown in figure 7-8.

Figure 7-8 the definition of X-BUS BIOS pin with TSOP32 package

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(4) PLCC32
BIOS with PLCC32 package are also X-BUS bus in the laptop, the definition of
pin shown in figure 7-9, and the material object shown in figure 7-10.

CS#: chip select OE#: enable WE#: write enable VCC: power
supply pin GND: ground AO~A17: the address signal line DO~D7: the
data signal line

Figure 7-9: The definition of X-BUS BIOS pin with PLCC32 package
Figure 7-10: The material object of BIOS with PLCC32 package

(5) SOPS8

BIOS with 8 pin are SPI bus, the definition of pin shown in figure 7-11, the
material object shown in figure 7-12.

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CS#: chip select SO: serial signal output WP#:write protection

GND: ground SI: serial signal input SCLK: serial clock
HOLD: pause VCC: power supply
Figure 7-11: The definition of SPI bus BIOS pin
Figure 7-12: The material object of SPI bus BIOS

(6) SOP16
BIOS used by IBM X200 part of the model uses 16 pin SPI bus, the definition
of pin shown in figure 7-13,the material object shown in figure 7-14.The
definition of pin is similar to 8 pin SPI,NC is Not Connected.

Figure 7-13 the definition of SPI bus 16pin BIOS

Figure 7-14 the material object of SPI bus 16 pin BIOS

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