Today's Embedded PC Systems need to provide both optimal performance and low power consumption. This can be difficult to accomplish without adequate control and system management tools to detect potential problems before they get out of hand. Similarly, systems must run stably and continuously, particularly in critical applications and severe environments with subject to extreme shock & vibration and extended temperatures.
To meet these requirements, a tool is needed which is able to monitor and gather performance and status necessary information from the hardware in a timely, flexible and precise manner. ADLINK's Smart Embedded Management Agent (SEMA) accomplishes these goals for you, the developer and end user.
Time-to-Market (TTM) and Total-Costs-of-Ownership (TCO) are key aspects to producing competitive products. To combine TTM and TCO in a reliable manner, a solid and reliable platform is fundamental. To assist in this endeavor, every new ADLINK computer-on-module (COM) and single board computer (SBCs) is equipped with a Board Management Controller (BMC) device supporting SEMA.
Initially designed for power sequencing tasks, the BMC has evolved to include many new and useful features through the years. Measuring the supply current to get a snapshot of the system・s power consumption is only one of the new capabilities. Being compatible with the latest Embedded Application Programming Interface specification (EAPI) reduces your effort to port existing calls to SEMA to nearly zero!
Interfacing the hardware to the operating system is one of SEMA's most important functions. The BMC first collects all relevant information from the chipset and other sources. Using the System Management Bus driver, the application layer fetches the data and presents it to the user. ADLINK also provides a ready-made application that shows the data in user-friendly graphic interfaces, suitable for supervision and troubleshooting.
