CentrinoPro Platforms and Power Packages (what are these??)

By Gael Holmes (Intel) (91 posts) on July 11, 2007 at 10:56 am

We all know that Power Management is one of the new features in AMT 2.5, right? Well maybe not. With Mobile Processing mixed with Intel AMT mixed with battery life, what could be a better topic?

AMT 2.5 provides support for multiple power policies and supports configuration of the maximum Power State where Intel AMT will operate. Power Packages are managed by the Security Administration Interface.

Specific Power States are tied to the 5 Power Packages, which were designed for the Intel® Management Engine (ME). Each package defines ME behavior in Sx states. The packages can be set from the BIOS, from the Intel AMT SOAP interface, and from the WEB-UI. Only packages 1-3, below, are required for OEM implementation and may vary from one OEM to the next.

Required: Mobile: ON in S0 - this means that the Intel® Management Engine (ME) and Intel AMT firmware are active when the host processor is active, even when the platform is on DC power. This is true for all packages when the platform is in S0.
Required: Mobile: ON in S0, S3/AC - this means that the ME and Intel AMT are active when the host processor is in a sleep state (S3), as long as the platform is attached to AC power.
Required: Mobile: ON in S0, S3/AC, S4-5/AC - this means that the ME and Intel AMT are active even when the host is powered down, as long as there is AC power to the platform.
Optional: Mobile: ON in S0; ME Wol in S3/AC - "WoL" (Wake on Lan) options indicate that when the host is asleep or off (depending on the package) the ME will "wake up" when the network interface detects an ARP or ICMP packet or a manageability message (a message addressed to one of the Intel AMT IANA ports.) The ME will transition to a lower power state after a period of no activity, which is configurable but should be set to no less than three minutes in Linux environments. (The default and minimum setting is 2 minutes.)
Optional: Mobile: ON in S0; ME WoL in S3/AC, S4-5/AC

Support for Power Packages will be included in the next release of the Intel AMT SDK (coming soon to a Manageabiltiy Community Site near you!!!)

APIs of Interest:

EnumeratePowerPackages (lists the power packages defined on the platform.)
GetActivePowerPackage (returns the identifier of the currently active power package.)
GetPowerPackage (returns the policy descriptor string of a selected power package.)
SetActivePowerPackage (sets a selected power package to be active.)
SetGlobalPowerPolicy (sets the global pwoer policy for a platform.)
GetGlobalPowerPolicy (returns the platform global power policy.)