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IGEL 2100 Specification and hardware description 

Igel 2100 Thin Client

The 2100 looks very similar to the 2110 and initially I thought the 2100 was little more than 2110 without the DVI connector. The differences are more significant as the they run off different power supplies (5V and 12V) and the RAM is to different standards (DDR and DDR2). The label on the 2100's case carries the marking IGEL 1/1 whilst that on a 2110 has IGEL 1/2.

According to a list on Igel's Website the 2100 CE Smart ceased being manufactured at the end of 2006 and support for it ceased at the end of 2009.

Specifications

The basic specs are:

Processor
   Type
   Speed
Via Eden
400 MHz
Memory
   Flash
   RAM
128MB
256MB (max 1GB)
Video
   Chip
   Max resolution
Via CLE266
1280 x 1024 24-bit colour
Ports
   Video
   Network
   USB
   Serial
   Parallel
   PS/2
VGA
10/100
2 x USB2.0 front
1
1
Kybd & mouse
Power
   Off
   Running
9W
18W-23W
Dimensions
W x H x D3cm x 21.5cm x 21.5cm

The 2100 CE runs Windows CE.

Power Supply

The IGEL 2100 uses an external 5V supply with a conventional coaxial type connector.

Processor

The Processor is described as a VIA Eden. There are actually a number of processors under this name. The CPUID instruction tells us it is:

CPU family:6
model:7
model name:VIA Samuel 2
Stepping:3

VIA did have a handy table on their website (now removed) that tells us that the 400MHz VIA Eden Samuel 2 runs with a FSB of 100MHz.

Expansion

click for larger image

Both the Flash memory and the RAM in the 2100 are easily replaceable.

The flash memory is a Compact Flash card plugged into a socket adjacent to a 44-pin IDE connector.

There is a single 200-pin SODIMM socket for the RAM. The 256MB SODIMM supplied with the unit is labelled: 256MB DDR 333MHz and is manufactured by DSL. This is PC2700 memory. According to the 2100 data that I've found it usually fitted with 128MB of RAM. The CLE266 Data sheet states that it supports DDR200/266 memory, but the CPU runs with a 100MHz FSB. So maybe the DDR333 module is a later upgrade as the memory speed supported is DDR200 (PC1600).

I tried a Kingston 512MB PC2100 SODIMM (KTA-PBG4266/512) but the BIOS still only thought there was 256MB RAM fitted. Trying to run Linux with this fitted was not successful so the problem was more than just recognised capacity. (Actually some of the characters in the BIOS screens looked slightly distorted). In fact a web search on the part number showed that a number of MAC owners have trouble with this particular memory! This particular SODIMM has 8 chips per side.

I subsequently tried a PC2700 SODIMM with a part number of HYS1273216512OE. This has four chips per side of the SODIMM and it worked perfectly.

 


Any comments? email me.    Last update January 2011