MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro Xserve Intel ME, AMT, SMM firmware information

[MacintoshKeyboardHacking]

Does anyone have any? ; )

I've been trying to figure out how Intel ME, AMT, SMM mode is implemented in Xeon Xserve3, MP4 and MP5... not having any luck. I've analyzed the full firmware images as well as extracting each "Volume" in UEFITool, and run them through ME_cleaner, MEstatus, and a few others, everything says "there is no ME".

I see some references online to people using me_cleaner on newer Apple portables, claiming success with products 2012 and newer, so at some point Apple's implementation became "compatible". There has to be *something* running the LOM IPMI...


If anyone knows anything about the underlying version or how to work with it, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[tsialex]

Apple did not implemented Intel ME for Xserve3,1 or MacPro5,1.

 

[MacintoshKeyboardHacking]

I had hoped the function would be similar enough that the ME tools could identify it.

The XS3 service guide shows (p21) a discrete BMC on the LPC bus. Somehow IPMI traffic gets from there to the Ethernet ports, even when the Xserve is off because the "LOM" has it's own MAC and IP addresses (very much like Intel ME).

It doesn't surprise me Apple do things their own way, and maybe they weren't doing anything at all with SMM at this point, since historically they've used SMCs and PMUs for that kind of stuff.