networkZONE Products for the week of September 19, 2005
Agilent Technologies Says…
Remote Management Processor Combines KVM-over-LAN
with Remote Server Management For Lower Costs, Increased IT Productivity
Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced the industry's first remote management processor (RMP) to combine keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) over LAN with remote server management. The highly integrated Agilent N2533A processor is targeted at servers and plug-in cards.
Today's information technology infrastructures are complex environments to control and manage. OEMs are expected to provide customers with solutions to address this challenge. The new RMP chip's digital KVM and remote management features provide end-customers (IT administrators) with tools needed to increase IT productivity, such as using the Web to restore service and fix computer-related issues from anywhere on the network without the need for additional hardware.
The feature-rich N2533A is Agilent's fourth-generation, standards-based RMP. It performs IPMI 2.0 baseboard management and includes KVM over LAN and remote storage to control several management tasks. The N2533A minimizes server downtime while remotely managing power cycling, OS installation and BIOS upgrades. Agilent's highly integrated RMP solution reduces external component count, board space and system costs.
"There are companies that provide remote-management or KVM-only solutions, but Agilent is the first to combine these two important features in one chip," said Thomas Goetzl, worldwide marketing manager for Remote Systems Management and KVM Solutions in Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group. "As the market leader, our customers look to us to raise the bar and push remote management technology to the next level. We already offer the industry's most complete portfolio of chips, cards and turn-key software solutions for BMC, KVM over LAN and remote storage."
The Agilent N2533A RMP is being used by leading server OEMs such as HP and Stratus.
"Agilent's RMP4 solution offers a solid manageability framework for the HP Integrity server family," said Don Jenkins, vice president of marketing, Business Critical Servers, HP. "HP's work with companies like Agilent, combined with our unique capabilities in availability, security and flexibility, allows us to deliver remote management and cost of ownership benefits for enterprise customers."
"We selected the Agilent RMP chip for our next-generation serviceability platform that we're bundling with future Stratus ftServer products," said Tim Wegner, vice president of engineering at Stratus Technologies. "We are pleased Agilent has integrated its remote management technology into a single-chip solution, complemented by an open, extendable, standards-compliant firmware offering."
"Agilent's fourth-generation RMP is a welcome complement to Intel's server management offering for OEMs," said Hemant Dhulla, general manager of Intel's Manageability and Platform Software Division." Agilent's solution takes maximum advantage of our component, and their digital KVM hardware and firmware enables a robust remote management solution for Intel-based servers used in corporate data centers and across the enterprise."
N2533A Features
analogZONE Says . . .
Agilent's introduction of its N2533A/RMP 4.0 remote
management chip will support features that help enterprise computing managers
control the cost of ownership for a computer, a cost that can often be as
large, or larger, than the actual cost of the box. Like its predecessors,
the remote management processor bristles with all the USB, GPIO/I2C and
other interfaces required to monitor and mange a major server or remote
storage system (Fig. 1).
The new twist for their third-generation device
is a KVM-over-LAN function to the traditional serial-over-LAN and out-of-band
management options. This new mode allows for remote server operation similar
to traditional Serial-over-LAN schemes, but uses the server's video output
and keyboard and mouse inputs instead by interfacing directly with the server's
DVO video interface and USB bus (see Fig. 2). Also of note is the encryption
supported by the KVM-over-LAN which will help secure a server against intrusion
at little or no extra cost.
Not really highlighted in Agilent's release is a nifty remote storage feature that uses storage data available from the network. It can simulate virtual USB-based storage devices to the server by using the RMP 4.0's integrated USB device. This allows a remote operator to do things like letting a remote server connect to a floppy drive or CD-ROM located on the NOC operator's workstation and use it as a "virtual drive."
Between the functions, features, and software support, it looks like Agilent's RMP 4.0 chip is a natural fit for upper-mid and high-end servers and storage boxes. Its $29 price may cause problems in more cost-sensitive products, but the board space and component savings afforded by its on-chip RAM and PHYs could still make it a contender in these applications as well.
Given the huge number of potential sockets awaiting the chip in the next generation of remotely-managed equipment, Agilent should have a hot seller on its hands. Although they've had a couple of lean years and problems with market focus, the RMP 4.0 and several other well-engineered, highly-popular chips that they've produced over the last couple of years shows that they can deliver the goods with proper management and support. That's why I wonder whether Agilent's recent decision to sell off this highly productive, and potentially extremely profitable division is in the company's long-term best interest.
The N2533A is in production in a Pb-free PBGA-384 priced at $29 in moderate volumes. Development boards are available.
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