The OpenPOWER Foundation has announced a new LibreBMC project aimed at creating a fully open BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) for data center servers. LibreBMC will be developed as a collaborative project that has already been joined by companies such as Google, IBM, Antmicro, Yadro, and Raptor Computing Systems.
The BMC is a specialized controller installed in servers that has its own CPU, memory, storage and sensor polling interfaces, which provides a low-level interface for monitoring and controlling server hardware. With the help of BMC, regardless of the operating system running on the server, you can monitor the status of sensors, manage power, firmware and disks, organize remote boot over the network, ensure the operation of the remote access console, etc.
LibreBMC is developed in accordance with the principles of Open Hardware. In addition to open circuits, design documentation and specifications, it is planned to use open tools for development. In particular, the LiteX framework is used to create SoC electronic circuits, and the SymbiFlow package is used to develop FPGA-based solutions. The resulting board will comply with the DC-SCM specification, which defines the requirements for control modules used in server hardware developed by the Open Compute project.
LibreBMC will be equipped with a processor based on the open POWER architecture. The firmware will use the OpenBMC stack, once developed by Facebook and converted into a joint project developed under the auspices of the Linux Foundation. The use of OpenBMC in combination with the LibreBMC project will result in a completely open product that combines open hardware and open firmware. LibreBMC is currently in the prototype design phase, implemented using the Lattice ECP5 FPGA and Xilinx Artix-7.
Source: opennet.ru