Intel
®
NetStructure™ MPCHC5525 System Master Processor Board IPMI Reference Driver User’s Guide 19
Preparing Software for IPMI Usage
Preparing Software for IPMI Usage 3
3.1 Action Plan
Before being able to use IPMI the following steps are required and will be described in this chapter.
3.2 Notes on Writing Your Own IPMI Driver
The Intel
®
NetStructure™ MPCBL5525 offers IPMI drivers for several operating systems. For
information about designing your own IPMI driver, refer to the Intelligent Board Management Unit
Reference Guide (PN217328), available by contacting Force Computers.
The interface type used by the IBMU is the Keyboard Controller Style (KCS) interface. For the
communication between the IPMI controller and the system management software, the KCS0
interface is used. There are also the KCS1 and KCS2 interfaces: KCS 1 can be used to enable ECC
error logging in the SEL via the operating system, and KCS2 is used for the BIOS POST codes.
The KCS0 interface can be used in polled or in interrupt-driven mode. The default mode is polled,
i.e. the application management software regularly reads the KCS0 register to find out whether
data has arrived or the state has changed. Interrupt-driven mode means that the IPMI controller sets
an interrupt in case data has arrived or the state has changed so that the IPMI driver is informed
automatically.