Data Sheet

Ethernet Controller I210 —System Manageability
688
10.6 NC-SI Pass Through Interface
The Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) is a DMTF industry standard protocol for the
sideband interface. NC-SI uses a modified version of the industry standard RMII interface for the
physical layer as well as defining a new logical layer.
The NC-SI specification can be found at:
http://www.dmtf.org/
10.6.1 Overview
10.6.1.1 Terminology
The terminology in this document is taken from the NC-SI specification.
Port 0x26F OR
Flex Port 7:0 OR
Flex TCO OR
Table 10-30. NC-SI Terminology
Term Definition
Frame Versus Packet Frame is used in reference to Ethernet, whereas packet is used everywhere else.
External Network Interface
The interface of the network controller that provides connectivity to the external network
infrastructure (port).
Internal Host Interface
The interface of the network controller that provides connectivity to the Host OS running on
the platform.
Management Controller (BMC)
An intelligent entity comprising of HW/FW/SW, that resides within a platform and is
responsible for some or all management functions associated with the platform (BMC,
service processor, etc.).
Network Controller (NC)
The component within a system that is responsible for providing connectivity to the external
Ethernet network world.
Remote Media
The capability to allow remote media devices to appear as if they were attached locally to the
Host.
Network Controller Sideband
Interface
The interface of the network controller that provides connectivity to a management
controller. It can be shorten to sideband interface as appropriate in the context.
Interface
This refers to the entire physical interface, such as both the transmit and receive interface
between the management controller and the network controller.
Integrated Controller
The term integrated controller refers to a network controller device that supports two or
more channels for NC-SI that share a common NC-SI physical interface. For example, a
network controller that has two or more physical network ports and a single NC-SI bus
connection.
Multi-Drop
Multi-drop commonly refers to the case where multiple physical communication devices
share an electrically common bus and a single device acts as the master of the bus and
communicates with multiple slave or target devices. In NC-SI, a management controller
serves the role as the master, and the network controllers are the target devices.
Table 10-29.Example 4 MDEF Results
Manageability Decision Filter (MDEF)
Filter 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7