Intel® vPro™ Technology

Innovating Above and Beyond Standards

Innovating Beyond and on Top of Standards

As mentioned in the introduction to this article, there is a common misconception that standards dictate commoditization of capabilities and prevent rapid innovation in the products that implement the industry specifications. As long as these specifications are implemented at the appropriate level, this is not the case. Innovation can happen on top of industry specifications. For example, Web-based capabilities on the Internet use well-defined standards for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to ensure that communication can seamlessly occur between a wide range of browsers and servers; still, innovative applications and capabilities are continually being delivered to the market. On the Web, industry specifications are not only used for basic communications, but also for authentication and encryption, as well as being used in other functional areas. Additionally, there are sets of optional specifications (either formal or informal) that developers can choose to use. For example, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) can be used for advanced rendering and “smash-ups” if a Web application developer chooses to take advantage of its features. However, if an application developer determines that these capabilities do not meet its needs, the developer is free to build an independent capability. The application is therefore not limited by AJAX and the developer can use any method to develop the content.

The evolution and philosophy of manageability specifications are very similar to what we see with Internet and Web-based capabilities. There must be a balanced approach such that the foundational capabilities are implemented in a uniform manner, without constraining the pace or availability of innovative capabilities developed by independent hardware and software vendors. Additionally, it is reasonable for parts of the industry specifications to be optional, so that these parts can be used at the discretion of the solution innovator.

DASH and WS-MAN are the industry specifications that deliver this balanced approach to manageability. Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) was built using these specifications, ones that deliver baseline core capabilities. These core capabilities would be common in most implementations of a manageability system. Intel AMT also solves problems facing the market by innovating on top of the standards and delivering timely value and variety in an interoperable fashion. For example, the implementation of the hardware inventory feature uses both WS-MAN for definition of the communication protocol, and a DASH profile to define the behavior of the communication exchange between clients and servers (management consoles). This very straightforward feature allows for a well-defined mechanism to determine what a hardware platform is, and what its basic hardware inventory is, regardless of the platform type (it even works for non-computer devices, such as networking or embedded equipment). Conversely, on a feature that is highly specific to the Intel PC platform, such as Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel® AT), Intel is able to implement highly innovative manageability features on top of the WS-MAN standard by defining a custom interface. For example, a custom interface in Intel AT is an “out-of-band unlock” interface. This capability allows a management console to provide appropriate credentials to an unattended encrypted machine, enabling it to self-boot in order for a security patch or other management function to be executed.

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