Business Practice | PowerLeader Computer's Smart UART HMI Based on openUBMC

This article explores how PowerLeader Computer System Co., Ltd. successfully implemented an in-house developed Human-Machine Interface (HMI) solution leveraging the openUBMC framework. You will know the technical architecture, design principles, and implementation strategies behind PowerLeader's smart UART HMI. As a critical component within the openUBMC ecosystem, this solution demonstrates advanced engineering practices and serves as a practical guide for developers.

Smart UART HMI

Targeting Latency-Critical Edge Computing

A smart UART HMI provides a lightweight and highly reliable local management portal for server BMCs. It is especially effective in latency-critical edge computing scenarios.

As server applications expand into domains like edge computing, legacy remote management systems such as Intelligent Platform Management Interfaces (IPMIs) and web interfaces fall short in meeting rapid troubleshooting needs. On-site visual monitoring is essential when network connections fail or remote management tools become unavailable. It allows administrators to perform emergency operations directly through a local display interface, thereby improving overall system resilience.

In addition, edge computing nodes are deployed in remote or physically isolated environments. A local monitoring display minimizes reliance on remote management systems and shortens response time for troubleshooting. Local, instant visual alerting is essential for mitigating the risk of system outages, particularly during hardware faults such as fan failures or overheating where remote management latency is a concern.

The power-efficient design of the smart UART HMI outperforms conventional display terminals, effectively reducing long-term O&M costs. The smart UART HMI offers a cost-effective hardware solution with seamless integration capabilities, making it ideal for mass production scenarios.

The smart UART HMI supports local control capabilities, allowing users to directly manage the server's BMC via the touchscreen, such as restarting the server, adjusting fan policies, or switching power modes. On-site O&M flexibility is thus significantly enhanced.

In scenarios with unstable network connections, administrators can leverage the smart UART HMI to access BMC or system logs and back up logs in real-time, enabling efficient troubleshooting and post-incident analysis.

PowerLeader's smart UART HMI integrates core modules to offer comprehensive monitoring and control capabilities, such as serial port redirection, log backup, device management, real-time system status monitoring, and alert supervision. The implementation of the smart UART HMI has significantly enhanced the real-time responsiveness, operational efficiency, and intelligent capabilities. Maintenance teams in manufacturing and data center environments now benefit from faster, smarter, and more responsive server management.

Implementation of the Smart UART HMI

As a typical component in BMC management systems, the smart UART HMI requires the integration of cross-domain technical capabilities, including BMC software development, hardware design, underlying protocols (such as I2C and serial), and terminal desktop application development.

Hardware Design

By redesigning the BMC's low-speed bus interface, a set of I2C lines is routed to the chassis exterior, enabling direct communication between the BMC and the smart UART HMI. In addition, the smart UART HMI is mounted onto the chassis using snap-in mechanisms. You can detach or change it when needed. By integrating an I2C-to-serial conversion module on the expansion board, the system emulates specific serial protocols over I2C to enable communication between the BMC and the smart UART HMI.

Software Design

The openUBMC component is introduced to implement the functions of the smart UART HMI. By leveraging the resource collaboration interface of openUBMC, PowerLeader's smart UART HMI components can easily obtain the asset information, network information, and system event logs (SELs) of the server, and send the information to the smart UART HMI via the serial port. The openUBMC component framework monitors and polls the overall server status, component status, and temperature data. It accurately transmits the server's health information to the smart UART HMI, enabling visual alerting.

Serial commands issued by the smart UART HMI are routed to this component, which parses the incoming instructions and maps them to corresponding resource coordination interface methods. This enables interactive control operations such as system power on/off, BMC reboot, and fan mode configuration.

Serial Port Redirection

The PowerLeader's smart UART HMI supports serial port redirection. BMC serial port logs are transmitted to the smart UART HMI, significantly enhancing real-time on-site O&M efficiency by accelerating fault diagnosis processes. Building on this technical foundation, this innovative mechanism is designed to periodically back up serial log data, delivering "black box" reliability for server diagnostics and data protection. This function ensures critical operational data persistence even under critical failure scenarios like power outages or network disruptions. The following describes how to implement the logic process of serial port redirection. This is used as a technical reference for developer community members.

Wrap-up

PowerLeader Computing is an active contributor to the openUBMC community, leveraging its proprietary component to rapidly implement innovative designs that showcase the true potential of openUBMC's open-source ecosystem. PowerLeader Computing is committed to actively sharing industry best practices within the developer community, fostering collaborative growth alongside fellow developers. We aim to drive innovation in the BMC domain by collaborating with a growing number of community developers, working together to advance the openUBMC ecosystem.

Follow openUBMC

Community official website: https://www.openubmc.cn

Code repository address: https://gitcode.com/openUBMC/network_adapter