Fujitsu Siemens S300: Hardware 

• Hardware
• Firmware
• Linux

The Fujitsu Siemens S300 is essentially identical to the S200. It is one of the larger thin clients around. It's neatly packaged and, although not as power hungry as the s400, does carry the same warning label about using it vertically with a stand.

A datasheet I found on the S300 is dated October 2005.

When a cheap one appeared on eBay a quick search indicated to me that this was actually the same as an S200. Photographs showed the same motherboard (TR5670). However the datasheet did claim as far as the network was concerned:

LAN on board	10/100/1000 Mbit/s
Fast Ethernet	Connectivity TP (Twisted Pair), RJ-45

The claim of gigabit ethernet implied a difference in specification. I should have paid attention to the line below which said 'fast ethernet' (ie 100Mbit/s) as that's all I found.

Specifications

The basic specs for the S300 are:

Processor
Type    Speed	Transmeta TM5800 800MHz
Memory
Compact Flash    RAM	eLux 128MB, 256MB 128MB, 256MB, 512MB	XPe 256MB, 512MB 256MB, 512MB
Video
Chip    Max resolution    Connector	SiS315 32 bit colors, 1600 x 1200 / 85 Hz VGA
Ports
Network    USB    Serial    Parallel    PS/2	10/100 4 x USB2.0 1 1 Kybd & mouse
Power
Power    Plug    Off    Idle    Running	100-240V 50/60Hz IEC 2W 13W 16W
Dimensions
H x W x D (mm)	246 x 48 x 177

My S300 came with eLux NG as the operating system and 128MB/256MB of Flash/RAM.

Power Supply

The S300 has an internal power supply and uses a standard IEC connector.

CPU

The S300 is fitted with a Transmeta Crusoe clocked at 800MHz.

The Linux cpuinfo reports:

vendor_id	:	GenuineTMx86
cpu family	:	5
model	:	4
model name	:	Transmeta(tm) Crusoe(tm) Processor TM5800
stepping	:	3
flags	:	fpu vme de pse tsc msr cx8 sep cmov mmx longrun lrti constant_tsc

PCI

00:00.0 Host bridge: Transmeta Corporation LongRun Northbridge (rev 03)
00:00.1 RAM memory: Transmeta Corporation SDRAM controller
00:00.2 RAM memory: Transmeta Corporation BIOS scratchpad
00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 315PRO PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)

Disassembly

This is fairly straight forward. First remove the two screws that hold on the front cover. The front cover can then be gently slid forward. I found it to be a snug fit and it needed a bit of gentle encouragement to move. Next remove the two screws on the rear that hold on the top cover. This can then be removed.

Motherboard

The motherboard is labelled as a TR5670 Rev 1.4. Click on the photograph to get a more detailed view of the circuit board.

Expansion

Flash: The board is fitted with an Compact Flash socket so increasing the size of the flash is easy. There is also a 40-pin IDE socket. I haven't yet experimented with that.

RAM: The board has a single SODIMM socket for DDR memory. Mine came fitted with a PC2700S 256MB part - HYS64D32020HDL. A 512MB part worked (Kingston KFJ-FPC50/512 2.5V). I believe the integrated northbridge of the TM5800 will only support up to 512MB of DDR RAM.

PCI: There is a PCI socket. My S300 came fitted with a riser card. (See note below).

Ethernet: Despite the mention of 10/100/1000 Mbit/s on the datasheet the S300, like the S200, is fitted with a VIA VT6102 that only supports Fast Ethernet (100MBits/s) speeds.

Auto Boot: There is a jumper (JP7) adjacent to the buzzer that governs whether the S300 automatically boots on power-up or waits until the front button is pressed.

USB: There are two USB 2.0 sockets on the front and two on the rear. There are also (maybe) two internal USB sockets. There is a connector (J4) near the PCI socket. I plugged in a standard motherboard-to-two-USB sockets cable and checking with a pen drive found I had one more active USB port. My guess is the other one works as well but for some reason Fujitsu-Siemens opted to leave off the +5V pin, so anything - such as a pen drive - that relies on being powered from the socket, will not work.

PCI Note: The power supply in the S300 delivers only +5V. However the PCI bus standard does include -12V on pin B1 and +12V on pin A2. These voltages are absent on the S200. This may affect any PCI expansion card you fit. A prime example are PCI sound cards where the +12V supply line is often used to power the on-card audio amplifier. You may think there's a software problem as you have no sound, but in reality it's the final amplifier stage that isn't working.

There are a couple of ways out of this:

1. Some users have found that connecting the +5V line to the +12V line is all that's required. The on-board amplifier still works reasonably even though the power supply has been dropped to 5V.
2. You can fit one of the many small and cheap DC-DC step up converters to provide the requisite 12V.

A typical 1A step-up converter available for <£2 on eBay.