Smart Monitoring PC Hardware Launched By NVIDIA

MojoKid writes "NVIDIA has just introduced a new open-industry standard for real-time monitoring and control of PC power supplies, chassis, and water cooling systems. Dubbed ESA, which stands for Enthusiast System Architecture, the company hopes the standard will be adopted across the industry. A new wave of ESA compliant hardware that can be monitored and controlled via a standard interface could ensue, like smart health-monitoring power supplies and other components, that would increase system stability and reliability. 'The ESA standard is built around the USB HID (Human Interface Device) specification and has been submitted to the USB-if HID subcommittee for discussion and approval. ESA is essentially a hardware and software interface that takes data collected by analog sensors and converts it to digital information that can accessed via software. Below are a handful of slides taken from an NVIDIA-produced presentation on ESA.'"

Join my club!

[Big Nothing (229456)]

Anyone wanna join my club; ATS*?

* ATS: Ambiguous Three-letter-acronyms Suck

Re:

[The -e**(i*pi) (1150927)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESA_(disambiguation) [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[Big Nothing (229456)]

Nope, I just changed it.

LET'S GET READY TO WIKIRUUUUUUUUMMMBBBBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Naah, just kidding, I wouldn't dream of starting a wikiwar just to get some karma points. Or would I?

Are you sure?

[InvisblePinkUnicorn (1126837)]

Are you sure MojoKid wrote that? If so, he forgot to add the presentation slides to his slashdot submission.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Are you sure MojoKid wrote that? If so, he forgot to add the presentation slides to his slashdot submission.

MojoKid [slashdot.org] does actually appear to be Marco Chiappetta, the author of the hothardware.com article. So he did write that, yes, but did a pretty sloppy job of quoting himself for the synopsis.

Hmm....

[EveryNickIsTaken (1054794)]

ESA is essentially a hardware and software interface that takes data collected by analog sensors and converts it to digital information that can accessed via software.

Sounds like a computer to me...

Printer Analog Sensors

[Dareth (47614)]

I hope the sensors work better than the ones in my HP printers. While it is may be interesting all the things they can detect, jam in tray 3, under fuser, etc. They really annoy the hell out of the users.

Well, I would ramble on more about voltage flux warnings etc, but I have to run and change my print toner... I have less than 1000 pages left!

Re:

[MrP-(at work) (839979)]

Yeah let's hope not.. Otherwise expect messages stating your running out of hard drive space when really you're only using 50%.

Re:

[The -e**(i*pi) (1150927)]

50% is running out of hard drive space 80% is out of hard drive space 90% is screwing up your computer

Re:

[vadim_t (324782)]

Well, I would ramble on more about voltage flux warnings etc, but I have to run and change my print toner... I have less than 1000 pages left!

Well, it depends on how you use the printer. Here I'm sitting near a printer used to print product catalogs. 1000 pages left is a sign of that if there's no extra toner left, ordering some now would be a very good idea.

Really the right thing to do would be making the threshold configurable. Also depending on the cartridge, the precise amount of toner might be hard to

Re:

[mikael (484)]

While it is may be interesting all the things they can detect, jam in tray 3,

I find using ketchup works much better than toner ink - although it does tend to drip a lot.

Re:

[ben there... (946946)]

I hope the sensors work better than the ones in my HP printers.

I hope they work better than their own product [imageshack.us]. The CPU temp depicted is actually 51 degC, according to more accurate Core Temp and Intel TAT monitors. The nForce fan speed is actually ~5000 RPMs, but registers 11000 every few seconds without getting any louder. Occasionally the CPU core and FSB are drastically off.

Even with nVidia's integrated monitor, most "enthusiasts" (overclockers) end up trusting other independent utilities like SpeedFan and CoreTemp, and disregarding nVidia's monitor. Maybe that's w

Isn't this what SMBUS / I2C is for?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Isn't this what SMBUS / I2C is for?

Re:Isn't this what SMBUS / I2C is for?

[Andy Dodd (701)]

Yeah, except there's no standard for I2C controllers (making software a nightmare - how many I2C controllers does lm-sensors need to support? How many are not supported?), likewise no standard for certain sensor types with I2C interfaces. (How many different temperature sensor drivers does lm-sensors have?)

On the other side of the world....

[neokushan (932374)]

In NVIDIA's new open-industry standard, you can monitor components inside your computer.

In soviet Russia, components inside your computer monitor YOU!

Re:

[tcolberg (998885)]

And yet on the otherside of the world, the administration's wide definition of wiretapping means that the "components inside your computer monitor YOU" TOO!

Re:

[Gilmoure (18428)]

Who's a tired cow?

Beef on wheels?

IPMI Lite?

[drdanny_orig (585847)]

Wasn't this already accomplished w/ IPMI? At least in more expensive server hardware? What am I missing?

Re:IPMI Lite?

[Junta (36770)]

From my brief look at nVidia's site, it looks like it's more an internal standard than external. IPMI stops at the service processor. The service processor, in turn, used as many arbitrary busses/protocols internally to gather the data and report it back (and while the service processor *might* help you with fan-control versus throttling using OEM commands, the sensor interface strictly speaking only mandates reporting, not controlling). Such a system, for example, would do perfectly fine at reporting on all components explicitly integrated by the manufacturer. However, stick in an arbitrary graphics card, and no sensor value for it's temp/fan will appear as an IPMI-reported device. If a hypothetical standard existed within the case, monitoring may work better without having to buy a single-vendor solution that planned for all that, and you could hypothetically monitor and control arbitrary installed devices. Also, if intelligent about it, more tradeoffs can be made. When you can send instruction to both the GPU and it's cooling device, then for performance you could request that the cooling ramp up whatever it takes, but then go to acoustic and it would throttle the GPU instead of ramping up fans. An IPMI compliant BMC that was also ESA compliant might generate SDRs based on some sort of ESA-discovery.

nVidia isn't the only game in town talking about internal standards for this, Intel for one definitely has been pushing their own ideas in terms of moving standardization to the interior of the systems.

I've wanted something like this for a long time

[MonorailCat (1104823)]

I currently have to use several programs and a manual fan controller to for half the capability this system offers. To read temps I have to use different programs for motherboard, case, and GPU, and several fans aren't even controllable, in hardware or software. I have little understanding of the temperature distribution in my case. Getting all this information and more into one integrated hardware/software package is a feature I'd gladly pay more for.

Re:

[Metaphorically (841874)]

I currently have to use several programs and a manual fan controller to for half the capability this system offers. To read temps I have to use different programs for motherboard, case, and GPU, and several fans aren't even controllable, in hardware or software.

I'd love a nicely integrated solution. I don't have a high-end GPU right now but I went through all kinds of pain just trying to figure out if SMART reports correct data for my drives (more about this [latenightpc.com]). The short answer is that while I think it may have been wrong I still took the time to install some new quieter, high volume fans.

It seems like it's time for cooling solutions to enter the PnP age. Ever since MS strong-armed the industry into adopting Plug n Play it's been much simpler for computers to

Re:

[Michael Woodhams (112247)]

Likewise.

I use SpeedFan, but there is a lot it can't do:
I can't tell where the motherboard temperature sensors are.
It doesn't read temps or fan speeds or control fan speeds in the PSU.
It doesn't read temps or fan speeds or control fan speeds in the GPU (unless I plug the fan into a motherboard fan header.)
There is no standard hardware for attaching additional temperature probes.

In my case, some of this is moot - my GPU and PSU don't have fans. I take geek pride in having a quiet single fan system*. There ar

Re:

[Emetophobe (878584)]

Getting all this information and more into one integrated hardware/software package is a feature I'd gladly pay more for.

Check out Everest Ultimate Edition [lavalys.com]. Here's a screenshot of the sensor page: http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/4020/everestoe0.jpg [imageshack.us]. Everest also shows VERY detailed information on every aspect of your hardware, operating system and software. It's quite an impressive piece of software, the only downside is that it's Windows only.

USB port usage...

[Ptur (866963)]

So you'll need a usb port for each item that you want to monitor (PSU, case, cooling,...).
Apart from usb port shortage, this also means more wires inside the case will be restricting the airflow.

Re:

[LWATCDR (28044)]

I don't see the need to use USB for this. Why not use I2C or SMbus which based on I2C?
It already exists and is more than fast enough. Seems like there is already a solution in place that may just need to be improved and not replaced.

Re:

[LWATCDR (28044)]

The problem with SPI for this application is that you need a CS line per device. That could be a lot of lines and or wires. Length of run shouldn't be a problem for the sensors in a PC case. The limit is depends on the clock speed but you can easily get a few meters. So with a 6 to 12 foot limit one has to wonder just how big your case is!
Motherboards already use the SMBus to monitor temps and fans. So why go with USB?

Re:

[LWATCDR (28044)]

Well except that SMBus which is I2C is already used on motherboards for temperature sensors and fans so we know that it works.

Why not just link to nvidia's page?

[SuperBanana (662181)]

Nothing like primary source material [nvidia.com], folks.

I really grow tired of Slashdot linking to another site that describes a web page, instead of just linking to the page itself.

Re:

[trongey (21550)]

If he'd done that he wouldn't have driven all those hits to his own page.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

...and when someone does link to the original source document for something like this, people say that the editors are just shilling for the manufacturer. Seriously, they can't win. Say what you will about the quality of a particular article (which, from what I can tell, is poor), but it's very acceptable to link to a new article which reports the contents of a different site, so as to give analysis, compilation of additional primary sources, etc.

Re:

[keithjr (1091829)]

Does that not mean you also grow tired of Slashdot itself, which is a list of links to posts that describe other pages?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Re:

[Big Jojo (50231)]

... linking to another site that describes a web page, instead of just linking to the page itself.

Strange. That's essentially the policy WikiPedia has ... if you put up a good article using only primary sources you'll get dinged because This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Maybe for disciplines like history that makes sense. But it's a phenomenally stupid policy for technology, where secondary and tertiary sources are both rare and, mo

Is it interactive?

[ircmaxell (1117387)]

This would be cool if it allowed real time interactivity with the devices rather than just monitoring. Think about it, being able to monitor and control devices remotely... It can be done now, but it's highly device dependant... With an open protocol, lmsensors would become much easier to install...

Needs a better name

[Hoi Polloi (522990)]

Calling it "Enthusiast" implies that it isn't for serious use, just hobbyists. I assume they'll want to market this feature to businesses and government buyers eventually. They should've picked a more generic name.

Re:

[kent_eh (543303)]

They should've picked a more generic name.

More generic than ESA [wikipedia.org]???
It looks like one of the most generic TLAs out there.

Re:

[Metaphorically (841874)]

In the long run, yes, but they can always roll out a couple generations of technology to try out on the cutting edge stuff then once the kinks are worked out rebrand it as Enterprise System Monitoring or some-such businessy sounding thing.

If it works....god bless em

[Danathar (267989)]

All I can say is getting LINUX to recognize sensors on various motherboards is a pain in the Ass. Any standardization in this area would be great.

Re:

[Lord Ender (156273)]

What does LINUX stand for?

Re:

[evilviper (135110)]

All I can say is getting LINUX to recognize sensors on various motherboards is a pain in the Ass.

First off, this isn't for sensors on the motherboard, but the likes of PSUs and water-cooling systems that don't currently have sensors, or at least not standard.

Second, you're absolutely right that reading sensors via the Linux means is a nightmare. Setting myself up for a troll mod here, I know, but I have to say the *BSDs have had the sensor problem all sewn up, for quite a while now. 'sysctl -a hw' properl

Ummm....SMB?

[Mateorabi (108522)]

Isn't this what the System Management Bus (SMBus) is for? SMB also has the advantage of not requiring hubs to provide multiple ports since its a true multi-slave two wire bus. (Multi master, too.) Why not just provide a breakout connector on the motherboard to chain more devices? It is 100-400kbps but most of the peripherals don't need to report more than a few bits per second of diagnostic info anyway.

SMBus is a mess

[Wesley Felter (138342)]

Today's motherboards use I2C/SMBus for sensor access, and it is a total mess. There are hundreds of models of sensor chips that need drivers, and there's no way to know the mapping from sensor numbers to the real world (which fan is "fan 0"?). Then some vendors add microcontrollers that are not on the SMBus and have totally undocumented interfaces (hello AIGuru). I haven't looked at ESA, but hopefully it solves some of these problems.

Re:Ummm....SMB? PMBus?

[Big Jojo (50231)]

Also PMBus [wikipedia.org], which standardizes much more of the relevant stuff.

For the record, SMBus maxes out at 100 Kbit/sec. PMBus allows 400 Kbit/sec, as does I2C. Neither of them is really intended to be a multi-master bus, except in the very limited sense that they define a way to send notifications from slave to master. (Though the alternative SMBALERT# mechanism seems much simpler... I think the "notification" thingie was designed to prevent a simple migration path from I2C, and promote fancier Intel southbrid

Excuse me, Dave

[Bill, Shooter of Bul (629286)]

I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours.

Why not SNMP?

[smackenzie (912024)]

Why don't they fold more video monitors (and enthusiast monitors like water temperature of water coolers) into SNMP or SNMP2? (Or have they already?) Why do we need another standard?

SNMP is an industry standard, well-supported, flexible with multiple attractive interfaces... pretty sure it can be realtime and has the added bonuses of being networkable by default.

Re:

[mikkelm (1000451)]

You want to use SNMP for hardware-to-hardware capability querying? Sounds like it'd make more sense to develop some sort of low-overhead SCMP (yeah, you got it right) that SNMP could leverage.

Re:

[fifirebel (137361)]

Ahem.

Maybe because SNMP is IP-based. Now you do not want to assign IP addresses for all the components inside your computer, do you?

And no, rendez-vous or mDNS (or whatever the name-du-jour is for IP autoconfiguration is at Apple today) is not an answer...

Re:

[smackenzie (912024)]

You don't need an IP for every component, just each computer. You can use your local IP 127.0.0.1 without issue. Really, nVidia should just be working to make this latency-free for local monitoring. By the way, each SNMP instance on each computer can record dozens (or even hundreds) of monitors. Generally with a good SNMP agent / manager, every time you register a device (like a Dell server or an IBM laptop) it adds dozens of things to monitor, some of them extremely low-level.

Upon further contemplation...

[inject_hotmail.com (843637)]

Again, this isn't a troll...I'm just a realist.

I just hope that the standard requires high-quality components, because I can see this backfiring. I have sold ASUS motherboards since I starting selling computers a few years back, and have had a lot of success (read: very very low RMA rate). Even though I choose to include only high-quality components, I have seen a situation where the motherboard -thought- it was running over temperature and began throttling itself (ASUS P4S800-X I think it was)...and this

Will it help with diagnostics?

[jandrese (485)]

One thing the PC architecture is seriously lacking on is hardware diagnostics. If you have a machine that's crashing with when booted off of CD in your known-stable OS, it's a pain in the rear to track down what piece of hardware is causing the crashes. The almost complete lack of hardware diagnostics (work on a big iron machine once to see how good life can be with real diagnostic tools) means you're almost always reduced to just pulling out/swapping random bits of hardware until it stops crashing. This

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

The difference is that you are logged in on the one with dynamic articles, and not on the static one.