Active Management Technology - what are major revisions - and how can you upgrade?

[Todd_Christ]

Many people have been asking 'how can I get the latest version of Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) on my PC or Laptop?"

When you purchase a vPro or Centrino Pro platform it comes with the technology embedded in the system firmware. Over time, some code revisions can be applied via BIOS or Firmware updates on the platform. Each OEM releases their own revisions to the BIOS/FW code as they become available. Intel based motherboards supporting Active Management Technology can be updated from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ http://downloadcenter.intel.com by picking the appropriate motherboard and code revision.

AMT has been around for a few years now and each new platform release brings a major revision number change, so let's do a quick history review:

• 2005 Desktop is AMT 1.0 (legacy mode)

• 2006 vPro desktop (codename Averill) is AMT 2.x

• 2006 Centrino Pro mobile platform (codename Santa Rosa) is AMT 2.5x

• 2007 vPro Desktop (codename Weybridge) is AMT 3.x

• 2008 http://www.intel.com/products/centrino/vpro/index.htm Intel® Centrino® with vProTM technology will be AMT 4.x (note the .5 revision is dropped, as seen in prior mobile releases)

• 2008 http://www.intel.com/products/vpro/index.htm?iid=c2d+badge_vpro& Intel® CoreTM2 Processor with vProTM Technology will be AMT 5.x

Those of you who are familiar with AMT and the software upgrade process - each version of Intel AMT can be updated in software to the next minor version.

i.e. an AMT 2.0 system can be upgraded to 2.1 or 2.2, but not to the next major version of 2.5x or 3.x.

You must purchase a new system to attain the latest version of Intel AMT and any future minor revisions can be applied to that system as well.