Power Management

PCI Express – Active State Power Management (ASPM)

We have one project in progress for the PCI Express subsystem, PCI Express (PCIe) Active State Power Management. Our goal with this project is to allow you to select PCIe ASPM dynamically, based on your changing power versus performance preference.

PCIe ASPM technology allows PCIe hardware to transition the link to lower power states. The link is the physical interface between the PCI endpoint and the PCI switch. When ASPM is enabled, we can reduce power consumption even when the devices are in a fully powered on state (D0). This technology is specified in the PCI Express Specification, which is available to PCI SIG members. A white paper about this technology can be found here.

While ASPM can be enabled by the BIOS, it is often enabled only for mobile systems because the latency to transition from lower to fully powered state can cause a drop in performance. However, depending on the administrator’s power policy, the OS should be able to switch this feature on or off at will, depending on whether the administrator wants to favor power over performance or vice versa.

Advanced

Intel – Trusted Execution Technology (TXT)

Malware Protection with Intel® TXT

Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) is a hardware security solution that protects IT infrastructures against software-based attacks by validating the behavior of key components within a server or PC at startup.

Using an infrastructure based in the Intel processor and known as the “root of trust,” Intel® TXT checks the consistency in behaviors and launch-time configurations against a verified benchmark called a “known good” sequence. The system can then quickly assess and alert against any attempts to alter or tamper with a system’s launch-time environment.