Supermicro platforms

This page documents details specific to the use of WPCM450 in Supermicro servers. Supermicro boards are identified by a 16-bit number, the board ID.

board ID	hex	board
1585	631	X9SCi-LN4F

Boot process

When power is applied, the BMC boots. The bootloader (for ATEN firmware) is described in Bootloader.

The host may also boot, without the BMC's cooperation. The host BIOS may later wait for the BMC to become ready.

Power management

• The host (x86) side can perform a shutdown without cooperation from the BMC. Afterwards, it stays off until it's powered on by the BMC or the power button.
• GPIO 11 (input) indicates whether the power supply is good (1=good, 0=power failure)
• GPIO 12 (output, active low) serves as a virtual power button, by which the BMC can turn the host on and off.
• GPIO 1 (output, active on falling edge) resets the host
• GPIO 79 (input) indicates the host power status (1=on, 0=off)

Graphics

• The framebuffer is in RAM, at 0x07000000 (112 MiB), with 16 bits per pixel.

UARTs

• UART 0 is the debug console
• UART 1 is used for SOL (connected to host ttyS2). SPSWC.SPMOD must be set to 2.
• The host's ttyS0 is connected directly to the RS232 port, bypassing the BMC

UID LED (LE5) and button (SW1)

• GPIO 14 (input) indicates the immediate UID button state (1=pressed)
• GPIO 23 (input) indicates the UID LED state (1=on). Hardware external to the BMC toggles it automatically when the UID button is pressed
• GPIO 23 can also be switched to output mode. In this case, GPIO 23 controls the UID LED directly (1=on, 0=off), and the UID button does not toggle the state

Status LEDs

Besides the UID LED, there are a few other status LEDs on a Supermicro board. X9SCi/X9SCA has the following, for example:

LED	GPIO	function
LE2	?	system on indicator (usually off?)
LE3	?	unsupported memory indicator
LE4	?	standby power on indicator (always(?) on)
LE7	20, active low	BMC heartbeat (green blinking)

Other GPIOs

• GPIO 12 and 13 fluctuate semi-randomly, especially when the host is powered on

BIOS flash access (for updates)

The procedure performed by ATEN vendor firmware is roughly the following:

• something about the chassis power state
• put Intel ME into recovery mode via I²C/IPMB
• something about GPIO 64
• access flash with chip select 3