 The
PC Watchdog board is a short 8-bit ISA card that monitors a PC for
hardware/software lock-ups to ensure maximum system availability. It
provides a solution for Telecom, ISP, Voice Mail, File Servers, and
Industrial systems that occasionally lock up but must be available
on a continuous basis. The PC Watchdog board only requires that you
have an 8-bit ISA slot available and a PC with a reset switch. The
reset cable is disconnected from the motherboard (CPU) and plugged
into the PC Watchdog board. A cable is provided to go from the PC Watchdog
board to the motherboard. When the PC locks up and the PC Watchdog
times out, then it will perform the equivalent of a push-button reset.
The PC Watchdog board ships with utility programs and APIs for control
of the board. Source code is provided for all included software. The
PC Watchdog works with most any operating system on a PC. Drivers for
Win 95-98-ME-NT-2000 & XP are included. It also has built-in
LINUX 2.0 (and higher) support.
The
card has the following features:
- Now
supports ATX PCs without a reset switch.
- Reset
adapter boards available for some Dell computers.
- Time-out
delays available from 2 seconds to 2 hours.
- Two
on-board relays (DPDT - 2 form C) can be programmed to generate a
3-second pulse or latch-on continuously after a PC Watchdog initiated
reset.
- Relay
contacts available on screw terminals, a DB-9 connector, and an internal
header on the board.
- Over
temperature option monitors the internal temperature of the PC.
- Two
temperature trip points - user programmable.
- With
temp option a relay can be programmed for a 3-second pulse or latch-on
after the overtemp trip occurs.
- Audible
alarm and external signal output for the temperature trip point.
- PC
Watchdog option to hold the PC in reset after the upper trip occurs.
- Two
externally visible LEDs show status of PC Watchdog board. One LED
lights after first PC Watchdog generated reset as a visible indication
that a PC Watchdog reset occurred.
- User
I/O ports that can be used for enhanced PC Watchdog control and monitoring
from user program.
- User
I/O port enables the user to control one of the relays from a user
program.
- Programmable
power-on delay to allow the PC to complete its initialization sequence.
- PC
Watchdog board can be disabled with programmable code sequence.
- In
special cases it can be used right from the box without any support
programs on older ISA only systems.
Berkshire
Part Numbers: 1090
(no Temp) & 1090-1 (with Temp Option).
Download
the PC Watchdog Manual in PDF format
Here is a web site for a company that has a Pentium 4 motherboard with
the Intel 845 chipset and 2 ISA slots. They claim it will be available
for an extended time. www.bcmcom.com
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