Intel Builds on Wired for Management Baseline Specification for Desktop, Mobile and Server Systems

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Sept. 14, 1998 -- Intel Corporation today announced the release of the Wired for Management Baseline specification 2.0. The new specification, which was developed with input from the computing industry, builds upon the existing specification to add manageability capabilities for desktop, mobile and server systems.

Products incorporating the new WFM specification are anticipated to be available in 1999 and will be compatible with the hundreds of Wired for Management-enabled hardware and software products now available.

Adding Critical Management Technologies for Greater IT Central Control
The new specification provides improved operating system and system update capabilities, more control over network booting, improved remote management and off-hours maintenance, easier troubleshooting for support personnel, and new integration capabilities with help desk applications.

The new specification includes improvements and additions for each of Wired for Management's four basic management capabilities: hardware instrumentation for diagnostics and asset management, universal network boot, remote wake-up, and power management.

System Component Instrumentation
The WFM Baseline specification's system component instrumentation, which allows IT managers to manage, monitor and inventory PCs in a standard way, supports the DMI specification used in most systems today. The enhanced WFM specification adds support for WBEM (Web-based Enterprise Management) instrumentation based on CIM.

WBEM will give WFM-enabled systems uniform access by management applications to management information from a variety of sources, such as DMI, SNMP and operating system-specific component instrumentation. Cross-mappers that allow WFM-enabled platforms to be managed by both DMI and WBEM applications will be made available in Windows* NT* 5.0. Systems with WBEM instrumentation were demonstrated here today.

The new WFM specification also requires dynamic instrumentation, which assures that system component information is kept up-to-date when devices, such as USB peripherals or hot swappable server drives, are added to or removed from systems that are running.

Universal Network Boot
Built-in universal network boot allows WFM-enabled systems to connect over the network to management servers before the operating system starts running. This enables remote diagnostics, automatic operating system and system component updating each time the system is booted, and operating system and software installation.

The new specification extends universal network boot support to mobile systems, allowing remote installation of software and diagnosis of system problems.

The WFM specification also includes optional certificate-based security for authenticating network booting. This will help ensure that systems booting from the network use only IT-approved boot images.

Remote Wake-up and Power Management
Designed for off-hours and remote system maintenance, the WFM specification remote wake-up capability has been updated to include support for "instantly available" systems and auto return to low power features. These capabilities automatically return the system to a low power state for energy conservation.

The new specification also supports ACPI power management, a consistent way to wake up the system and put it back to sleep. ACPI standardizes many data and control interfaces, providing more consistent and predictable power management.

A new "wake-on ring" capability allows systems to be awakened from a sleep state by a telephone line instead of a LAN. This capability is expected to be most widely used for mobile systems, which typically are not connected to the LAN, to provide software updates and troubleshooting. The enhanced specification also requires support for Magic Packet* and packet filtering, which will provide flexible solutions for administering and waking up systems on the LAN and over the WAN.

The new WFM specification also recommends an automated Trouble Ticket Agent that supports the Solution Exchange Standard and the Service Incident Exchange Standard developed and supported by the Customer Support Consortium and DMTF. Systems incorporating the Trouble Ticket Agent will be able to gather accurate and instant incident information at the time a problem is detected on the client or server, and report that information to the many help desk products supporting these standards. This will allow IT to provide faster and more effective support.

Supporting Products
Intel's LANDesk Client Manager product, which has provided WFM capabilities in systems from many PC and server OEMs since last year, will also support systems based on the enhanced specification. Future versions of the Intel LANDesk product family will utilize CIM instrumentation for accessing system information.

Intel's PRO/100 LAN+Modem56 CardBus adapter currently is the only mobile adapter supporting both DMI and ACPI. Vendors, including Intel and 3Com, plan to provide LAN controller chips and system motherboards.

New development tools and enabling products will be available from a variety of vendors to help PC makers and software vendors begin developing products based on the enhanced specification. Intel is making available software developers kits (SDKs) for the Boot Integrity Services and PXE features of the specification and a WFM Implementation Guide. Intel also is providing a self-test CD and will hold WFM Interoperability Workshops to permit vendors to test both hardware and software based on the new specification. Smart Technology Enablers, Inc. will provide a variety of tools, technologies and support for implementation of the WFM specification.

The Wired for Management Baseline specification 2.0 is one of the new technologies being announced during the Intel Developer Forum, a three-day, intensive, semiannual forum providing hardware OEMs and IHVs in-depth information on Intel technologies and initiatives. More information on the Intel Developer Forum can be found at developer.intel.com/design/idf. Updated information between Intel Developer Forums is available by subscribing to the Intel Developer Update Magazine at www.intel.com/update/.

Information about the Wired for Management initiative and WFM solutions is available at www.intel.com/managedpc.

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