IGEL M300C 

• Hardware
• Firmware
• Linux
• Windows 98

As can be seen in the photographs my Igel M300C came without any mounting foot. (Stock photo is on the right). The datasheet does say:

"CAUTION: Standard deployment of the device is in vertical position, horizontal deployment only supported with optional rubber feet!"

The M300C was part of Igel's Universal Desktop range and was the first of the UD3 (Generation 2) line of thin clients. I think it may have been launched in January 2009.

Since then we've had:

1. M300C - VIA Eden 800MHz (EOL March 2011)
2. M310C - M300C with a 1GHz CPU (EOL November 2011)
3. M320C - New motherboard: VIA Eden X2 1GHz (EOL March 2014)
4. M330C - M320C in a restyled case. (EOL February 2016)

Specifications

The basic specs are:

Processor
Type    Speed	Via Eden 800 MHz
Memory
Flash    RAM	1GB 512Mb (max 1GB)
Video
Chip    Max resolution	Via CN700 1920 x 1420 16-bit colour
Ports
Video    Network    USB    Serial    Parallel    PS/2	DVI 10/100 1 x USB2.0 front 4 x USB2.0 rear 1 none Kybd
Power
Supply    Plug    Off    Running	12V 4A (label) Coax 5.5mm/2.1mm 7W 16W
Dimensions
W x H x D	4.75cm x 19.1cm x 20.3cm

The M300C runs Linux.

CPU

For those to whom it matters here is some detail from Linux's /proc/cpuinfo

vendor_id	:	CentaurHauls
cpu family	:	6
model	:	13
model name	:	VIA Eden Processor 800MHz
stepping	:	0
flags	:	fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge cmov pat clflush acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm nx pni est tm2 xtpr rng rng_en ace ace_en ace2 ace2_en phe phe_en pmm pmm_en

PCI

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT890 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics [S3 UniChrome Pro] (rev 01)

Power Supply

The IGEL M300C uses an external 12V supply with a conventional coaxial type connector. Although the M300C data sheet says it comes with an "48~50W External Power Adapter" I find that the M300C I actually runs at a very modest power consumption of 14~16W.

Expansion

Disk

There appears to be a small quirk with the M300C (or a Hitachi Microdrive). I wanted to install some software on a Hitachi Microdrive plugged in to the CF socket. I decided the easiest way to do this was from a hard disk plugged into the IDE connector. I installed a jumper on the IDE drive to configure it as a slave drive. With just the Hitachi Microdrive plugged in the BIOS reports:

IDE Primary Master [HMS360404DD5CF00]
IDE Primary Slave [ None]

With just the hard disk plugged in I get:

IDE Primary Master [ None]
IDE Primary Slave [HITACHI_DK23AA-60]

...and with both plugged in I get:

IDE Primary Master [HMS360404DD5CF00]
IDE Primary Slave [ None]

However, if I replace the Microdrive with a Compact Flash card I get:

IDE Primary Master [SanDisk SDCFH2-4096]
IDE Primary Slave [HITACHI_DK23AA-60]

Go figure!

Connectivity Foot

On the underside of the unit (if mounted vertically) is a 44-pin plug. The M3x0C range all carry this connector - referred to as a 'connectivity foot' or 'connectivity bar' - which provides a way of adding additional legacy ports. This accessory seems to be quite rare.

The connector can be seen in the photo of the main circuit board just below the lower heatsink.

For more details see the M310C entry.