Intel® Server Board S2600CW Family TPS
Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager (NM) Support Overview
Revision 2.4
6. Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager (NM)
Support Overview
Power management deals with requirements to manage processor power consumption and
manage power at the platform level to meet critical business needs. Node Manager (NM) is a
platform resident technology that enforces power capping and thermal-triggered power
capping policies for the platform. These policies are applied by exploiting subsystem settings
(such as processor P and T states) that can be used to control power consumption. NM
enables data center power management by exposing an external interface to management
software through which platform policies can be specified. It also implements specific data
center power management usage models such as power limiting and thermal monitoring.
The NM feature is implemented by a complementary architecture utilizing the ME, BMC, BIOS,
and an ACPI-compliant OS. The ME provides the NM policy engine and power control/limiting
functions (referred to as Node Manager or NM) while the BMC provides the external LAN link
by which external management software can interact with the feature. The BIOS provides
system power information utilized by the NM algorithms and also exports ACPI Source
Language (ASL) code used by OS-Directed Power Management (OSPM) for negotiating
processor P and T state changes for power limiting. PMBus*-compliant power supplies
provide the capability to monitor input power consumption, which is necessary to support NM.
The NM architecture applicable to this generation of servers is defined by the NPTM
Architecture Specification v2.0. NPTM is an evolving technology that is expected to continue to
add new capabilities that will be defined in subsequent versions of the specification. The ME
NM implements the NPTM policy engine and control/monitoring algorithms defined in the
Node Power and Thermal Manager (NPTM) specification.
6.1 Hardware Requirements
NM is supported only on platforms that have the NM FW functionality loaded and enabled on
the Management Engine (ME) in the SSB and that have a BMC present to support the external
LAN interface to the ME. NM power limiting features require a means for the ME to monitor
input power consumption for the platform. This capability is generally provided by means of
PMBus*-compliant power supplies although an alternative model using a simpler SMBus*
power monitoring device is possible (there is potential loss in accuracy and responsiveness
using non-PMBus* devices). The NM SmaRT/CLST feature does specifically require
PMBus*-compliant power supplies as well as additional hardware on the server board.
6.2 Features
NM provides feature support for policy management, monitoring and querying, alerts and
notifications, and an external interface protocol. The policy management features implement
specific IT goals that can be specified as policy directives for NM. Monitoring and querying
features enable tracking of power consumption. Alerts and notifications provide the
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