Table of Contents
Advertisement
T e c h n i c a l I n f o r m a t i o n
System Management Controller
The purpose of the System Management Controller (SMC) is to monitor
and report the status of your system in terms of its integrity. It functions
as the interface between the following:
♦
Uninterruptible Power Supply
♦
Motherboard via the System Management Interface Card (SMIC)
♦
Front Panel
♦
Fans
Whenever the server develops a problem, perhaps a faulty disk drive or
too high a temperature within the server, the SMC reports it to the
System Management Application, which is a Windows program that
interprets the reports that the SMC sends.
In addition there is a modem port which appears on the backplane of the
server. This is a standard serial interface which enables monitoring of the
system from a remote computer.
The SMC has the following attributes:
♦
Validates the infrared data stream from the Front Panel.
♦
Sends data to Front Panel
♦
Communicates via a dedicated serial interface to the motherboard,
by means of the SMIC
♦
Provides power to the fans in the disk chamber
♦
Contains a Real-Time Clock (RTC) which maintains the date and
time
♦
Contains an 80186 processor chip which functions as an embedded
controller rather than a microprocessor
♦
Equipped with 256K Kbytes of SRAM, which shadows the EPROM
or the Flash device to enhance the speed of the system
♦
Contains Flash ROM in order to provide the firmware for the
functions of the Front Panel.
5-48 OWNER'S HANDBOOK
Advertisement
Table of Contents
