Hardware Platform Interface - History

History

A primary motivator for the development of the HPI specification was the emergence of modular computer hardware platforms in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This included CompactPCI platforms and, later, the AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA(xTCA) platforms standardized by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG). These platforms include hardware management infrastructures based on the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). Concurrently, major Enterprise vendors such as HP and IBM also developed modular and bladed systems.

The need for the HPI specification was first identified by an industry group called the “High Availability Forum,” which met for several months in 2000 to discuss issues relating to building high-availability computer systems using open architecture technology. This group published a white paper, “Providing Open Architecture High Availability Solutions” in early 2001. Growing out of that work, Intel Corporation began a project to define a standard hardware platform management API named the Universal Chassis Management Interface (UCMI). This work was migrated to the newly-formed SA Forum consortium and was published as the Hardware Platform Interface in October 2002. The original HPI specification, SAI-HPI-A.01.01, was the first specification published by the SA Forum.

From 2002 onwards, several updates to the HPI specification have been published. Additionally, specifications for accessing an HPI implementation via Simple Network Management Protocol(SNMP) and specifications describing the use of HPI on AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA platforms have been produced. Table 1 lists all specifications published by the SA Forum in the HPI family.

The HPI specifications and the Application Interface Specification (AIS) have been developed separately within the SA Forum. Although they are both intended to address functionality required for the highest levels of Service Availability, they are usable independently of each other. The AIS specifications can be implemented and used for high-availability clustering middleware that does not implement hardware platform management, and the HPI specification can be implemented by platform providers and used directly by application or management programs without the use of other SA Forum management middleware.

The primary intersection between the AIS and HPI specifications is found in the AIS Platform Management Service (PLM). The PLM service is defined with an expectation that hardware platform management will be provided via an implementation of the HPI specification on the target hardware platform.