Intel Phi 7120A SC7120A Data Sheet

Document ID Number: 328209 003EN

Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ Coprocessor Datasheet

61

The server management and control panel component of the Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ 

coprocessor architecture provides a system administrator with the runtime status of 
the Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor installed in a given system. There are two access 

methods by which the server management and control panel component may obtain 
status information from the Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor. The “in-band” method 

utilizes the Symmetric Communications Interface (SCIF) network and the capabilities 
designed into the coprocessor OS and the host driver to deliver the Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ 

coprocessor status. It also provides a limited ability to set specific parameters that 
control hardware behavior. The same information can be obtained using the “out-of-
band” method. This method starts with the same capabilities in the coprocessor OS, 
but sends the information to the System Management Controller (SMC) using a 
proprietary protocol. The SMC responds to queries from the platform’s BMC using the 
Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) protocol to pass the information 
upstream to the administrator or user. For more information on the tools available for 
management see the Intel

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Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor manageability relies on a SMC on the PCI Express* card. 

The system provides sensor telemetry information for management by in-band (host) 
software and out-of-band software via the PCI Express* SMBus. The SMC also provides 
additional functionality as described in this chapter.

The SMC is a microcontroller-based thermal management and communications system 
that provides card-level control and monitoring of the Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor. 

Thermal management is achieved through monitoring the Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ 

coprocessor and the various temperature sensors located on the PCI Express* card. 
Card-level power management monitors the card input power and communicates 
current power conditions to the Intel

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 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor.

SMC features include:

• Four thermal sensor inputs: inlet, outlet, coprocessor die, and GDDR.
• Power alert, thermal throttle, and THERMTRIP# signals.

The SMC connects to coprocessor silicon via the following I2C and out-of-band signals:

• In-band Communication

— Software access to thermal and power metrics via Ganglia
— gmond exposed via standard Ethernet port
— Accessible via Control Panel GUI and API

• Out-of-band Communication

— Access to the SMC via the PCI Express* SMBus using the IPMI IPMB protocol
— 50ms sampling rate for power data