AMD'S OPEN PLATFORM MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE EMBRACED BY INDUSTRY-LEADING SERVER MANAGEABILITY TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Nov. 9, 2005 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced key industry acceptance and support of its Open Platform Management Architecture (OPMA) specification that defines a common system interface between the server motherboard and its management subsystem. Leading infrastructure vendors, system builders and solution providers worked with AMD to develop the specification, which was published earlier this year. Many have now expressed significant commercial-grade server product plans which embrace the OPMA approach to system management, including OPMA-compliant management subsystem cards and server products based on the AMD Opteron(tm) processor.
"AMD has an unwavering focus on fostering a collaborative, connected business model that delivers flexibility and choice to both technology developers and end-users," said Marty Seyer, corporate vice president, Commercial Business and Performance Computing, AMD. "The OPMA specification and its industry acceptance exemplify how AMD innovates within industry standards to help deliver best-in-breed platform-level solutions for servers."
OPMA defines a complete system interface that allows a wide range of management subsystems to be attached to server motherboards in a standardized way. It specifies connector type, signal list, pin out, mechanicals, power, firmware interfaces and resource requirements for both the motherboard and management subsystem card. Ultimately, end-users can benefit from open standards like OPMA. It is a standardized management subsystem infrastructure designed to spawn more accessible and cost-effective server management technology by enabling the development of a variety of solutions that span a range of capabilities and price points.
Broad Industry Support
Among those firms offering or planning to offer OPMA-compliant management subsystems are Agilent Technologies, American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), Avocent, Raritan/Peppercon and Renesas Technology. Other OPMA adopters who supply motherboards and platforms include Arima, Celestica, Tyan Computer Corp. and Verari Systems.
"Agilent Technologies provides server OEMs and ODMs with best-in-class baseboard management and digital KVM solutions. OPMA as an open standard is the perfect platform to take advantage of Agilent's highly integrated Remote Management Processors," said Christiane Roche, business team manager, Agilent Technologies. "Complemented by Agilent's remote management firmware, OPMA-based solutions will provide unrivaled flexibility and feature richness to end-user customers."
"AMD's OPMA specification provides hardware vendors with a flexible approach to system management," said S. Shankar, AMI president. "AMI has been making remote management solutions since 1997 and is introducing the fourth-generation MegaRAC® management solution utilizing the OPMA connector. AMI's MegaRAC M100, M200 and M300 OPMA-based daughter cards will help reduce costs and time to market for server OEMs and motherboard manufacturers."
"We are proud that Raritan/Peppercon's expertise in the KVM-over-IP and embedded system management market, and our close relationships with server and motherboard OEMs, helped AMD and its collaborators develop the OPMA specification for connecting management subsystems to a common system interface within a server platform," said Dr. Christian Pätz, CEO at Peppercon, a major provider of ecosystem subcomponents for AMD Opteron processor-based servers. "By supporting AMD's OPMA common interface standard, we help our customers reduce platform development risk, cost and time to market."
The OPMA specification is available for download from AMD's Web site.
