CP-TA has recently published the ICD 3.0 and the TPM 3.0. The 3.0 documents, which have been named to reflect the PICMG 3.0 R3 specification, address manageability. The Data Transport and Thermal sections remain unchanged, so users, if they’re interested in these areas, need to revert back to the previously released ICD and TPM documents.

The exciting thing about this new release is that the requirements are enumerated, thanks to PICMG; CP-TA has followed the same enumeration scheme. So, each requirement is mapped to a test case and when a test fails, it is very easy for the operator to point out which PICMG requirement has failed.

Some other highlights of this release include detailed descriptions of all test procedures, such as the IPMI messages being mentioned along with the offset in the responses that need to be analyzed. There is also clarification on sequence numbers for embedded messages.  Test procedures for Telco Alarm related requirements have been added. There were "a few" ambiguous requirements in the PICMG specification, so CP-TA deliberated for months on the best possible solution for interoperable building blocks. These interpretation issues have been resolved in the 3.0 documents. Now all we need to do is come up with a test tool that will match the TPM - but that is a project in itself. We will keep you posted on the progress!

Click here to download the ICD and TPM 3.0 Documents.