System76 EC is designed to be portable to boards using several 8-bit microcontrollers, such as:
| Board | Embedded Controller | Architecture |
|---|---|---|
| System76 ecsim | Simulated ITE EC | 8051 |
| System76 Laptops | ITE IT8587E | 8051 |
| System76 Laptops | ITE IT5570E | 8051 |
Shared features (that can be used across different micro-controllers):
| Acronym | Feature | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ADC | Analog-digital converter | Reads voltages from batteries and temperature from thermistors |
| DAC | Digital-analog converter | Brightness control of keyboard backlight |
| GPIO | General purpose input/output | Control of LED's, buttons, and enable lines for other hardware |
| KBSC | Keyboard scan controller | Detects laptop keyboard presses. Keyboard scanning can be done using GPIOs, the ITE EC has hardware acceleration |
| LPC | Low pin count | Forwards memory and I/O access to EC. Most EC functions are exposed to the host through this interface. High frequency makes a GPIO implementation not possible. Simulation is provided by System76 ecsim |
| PECI | Platform environment control interface | Reads CPU temperature (relative to throttle point). Proprietary nature means a GPIO implementation is unlikely, though not technically impossible |
| PS/2 | Keyboard and mouse bus | Interfaces with touchpad. PS/2 can be done using GPIOs, the ITE EC has hardware acceleration |
| PWM | Pulse-width modulation | Fan control and brightness control of LED's |
| SMBUS | System management bus | Reads battery information |
| SPI | Serial peripheral interface | Reads and programs the EC's firmware |
| UART | Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter | Provides EC console input/output |