Innovations in infrastructure firmware for the IBM z13

Abstract

In this paper, we describe advances in the Support Element (SE) and Flexible Support Processor firmware design for the IBM z13™. Significant changes in hardware packaging, system control structure, and internal service network topology required major adaptations in critical hardware management components. The Configuration Manager redesign applied a modular programming approach to split a previously tightly coupled code base into isolated and now separately maintainable and testable units. The Hardware Object Model component was extended by a language-independent inter-process query interface based on concepts used in graph query languages. A licensing procedure, Feature on Demand, was refactored to a smart-card-based approach. In the networking firmware, new hardware platforms required a redesigned SE location detection mechanism to guarantee redundant accessibility via separated network paths. The introduction of a virtual self-boot engine (vSBE) for chip initialization provided hardware designers with a simplified means to efficiently integrate initialization procedures into firmware. An interpreter executes these hardware initialization procedures, avoiding the need for translation to programming languages. In addition to an in-depth introduction of the new design aspects, this paper outlines the improvements achieved with respect to development and bring-up efficiency as well as hardware initialization time.