Open Platform Management Architecture (OPMA) is an open, royalty free standard for connecting a modular, platform hardware management subsystem (an "mCard") to a computer motherboard. Platform hardware management generally refers to the remote monitoring of platform hardware variables such as fan speed, voltages, CPU and enclosure temperatures along with a wide range of other sensors. It also implies the ability to remotely control the power state of the platform and to reset the system back into an operational state should it "hang". A significant advantage of OPMA over previous generation management subsystem attachment methods is that OPMA does not consume a PCI socket. OPMA cards are also smaller and lower cost than their PCI predecessors.
The OPMA specification, which can be freely downloaded from the web, specifies a signal list, connector and pin out, power requirements, mechanical form factor, BIOS and management controller firmware interfaces, and a detailed division of management subsystem resources between the motherboard and the mCard. OPMA enables a wide variety of mCards to individually interface to a given motherboard. It also enables a single mCard to individually interface to multiple motherboard models.
OPMA is mainly targeted at server platforms where the cost of a card based management subsystem is more easily borne, but high end workstations may also leverage the specification to handle cases where remote workstation platform management is required. The OPMA interface is flexible enough to handle multiple mCard price points and capabilities ranging from basic IPMI based management to those that support KVMoIP, remote virtual media, and newer external interface standards that require a larger on-card resource footprint such as WS-Management.
OPMA supports two basic management subsystem connection paradigms. The first is where virtually the entire management subsystem resides on the mCard. Using this paradigm, the platform contains no basic management controller of any sort and relies on the presence of an OPMA card for all remote hardware management capabilities. In the second paradigm, the basic management module is soldered to the motherboard and the OPMA connector is used as an upgrade path for advanced platform management features. In this case, which is known as "upgrade kit mode", the OPMA card is able to access all sensors supported by the soldered down management controller using an SMBus link over which the Intelligent Platform Management Bus (IPMB) protocol is employed.
OPMA also leverages the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification in order to provide a basic plug and play capability. Using IPMI-defined OEM command extensions, the system and the mCard exchange basic information during system boot such as mCard/motherboard make and model, specification version compliance, and optional capabilities defined by the OPMA specification.
Read more about Open Platform Management Architecture: History, Adoption
Famous quotes containing the words open, platform, management and/or architecture:
“In that open field
If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close,
On a summer midnight, you can hear the music
Of the weak pipe and the little drum
And see them dancing around the bonfire
The association of man and woman
In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie....”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“It was a favor for which to be forever silent to be shown this vision. The earth beneath had become such a flitting thing of lights and shadows as the clouds had been before. It was not merely veiled to me, but it had passed away like the phantom of a shadow, skias onar, and this new platform was gained. As I had climbed above storm and cloud, so by successive days’ journeys I might reach the region of eternal day, beyond the tapering shadow of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This we take it is the grand characteristic of our age. By our skill in Mechanism, it has come to pass, that in the management of external things we excel all other ages; while in whatever respects the pure moral nature, in true dignity of soul and character, we are perhaps inferior to most civilised ages.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)